Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee on Boston attacks: ?We did not connect the dots?

>> us.

>>> lead democrat of texas and member of the house homeland secure ut, congresswoman, thank you for your time. i know you were briefed yesterday. you expect to be briefed very soon in a day or so. what are your concerns regarding the fbi and communications regarding officials and cia involved in this?

>> tamron, first of all, thank you for having me. of course i want to offer my deepest sympathy for the tragedy and those who lost loved ones and those who mourn. i want to set it straight and make it very clear that all of us appreciate the very efficient, the very extensive search and efforts made bit fbi , other law enforcement , state and local in massachusetts. why don't we just say that, because we believe in that. frankly, i believe we have a broken system again. it is important for members of congress who have to fix things and work with our agencies to be told the truth, to be told the facts, and to help work through what happened. there is no doubt that we did not connect the dots. and you cannot use overload of paperwork. you cannot use the idea of too many files to be able to have that as a legitimate excuse. after 9/11 when it was charged that we did not connect the dots, which is one of the reasons there were overstays that we had this horrific and horrible tragedy on 9/11. we put systems in and joint terrorism system diffusion centers. we put them in to elevate communication between the agencies. the difficulty i have with it case and suspect number one, is that what he did was in a relatively short period of time in terms of exhibiting elements that suggest that something was happening. something was changing. the going to back home to dagestan. looking at videos, the incident in the mosque. all of these things, information from russia , all of these things were in a compressed time of between two to three years. that is sufficient window of opportunity to, one, say you should not close the file. two, that if you say you did not hear from rush why and now we understand that there might have been communications, then it was imperative because of the region he came from and the fact that he spent six months. for you, meaning an agency, fbi , working with the cia and department of home hand security and its resources to persist in that unique case. i think that that question has to be asked and answered and it should not be taken from an accusatory position. because we can't get information if you have to stand back and be soft on the questioning or be soft on the probative needs that we have. we've got to be able to find out why the dots were not connected.

>> and congresswoman, i know your bridging was classified, so you cannot share in detail what happened, but our own pete williams brought up the issue and one of your points that continues, and that is specifically, should there have been more done to continue to look into the first suspect, tamerlan tsarnaev's activity, including what he posted on-line. we also know there are legal limitations, as well to factor in here.

>> you're absolutely right. you're absolutely right, we cannot discuss the specifics of the classified briefing and more that will come. but i think this is in the public domain and the question has to be, if there were things in the public domain , and if this individual had been noted. one, by a foreign entity, and you have to respect the laws of this land. privacy laws and privileges of certain status individual. he was, in fact, someone who had status. he was documented. he was not a citizen, however. but in our parameters, there are certain guidelines we have to follow. i don't disagree with that. what i would like to see, and this is again in the general domain, is that we make sure that all agencies communicate with each other and if there was information and there was dead silence , a period of lull, a period of nonaction, then i would hope the file could remain open and someone would say, he we tried to get information from russia , at least what is in the public domain now. we try to get information from russia . we haven't heard from them, we will continue to pursue them in spite of any lull in our diplomatic relations . we will continue to work with their law enforcement or intelligence authorities, just to follow up. that is what i call connecting the dots and i want to make it very clear. this does not take away from the very fine police work and the work of the fbi and the expedition and really stunning capture, one by death, and another one that is now captured, for last week. but we must ask the hard questions and connecting the dots is the same terminology, we used after the/11.

>> yes.

>> i want to be helpful and find out what is the missing element, one or many, that would have caused us not to make those dots and to be able to have been more effective in surveillance of this individual, keeping with the guidelines of the responsibilities of this nation and its adherence to its own laws and constitutions.

>> congresswoman sheila jackson lee , thank you.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b201029/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C51647821/story01.htm

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