Boston Globe reports intelligence 'wall' still standing, FBI never alerted anti-terror unit

Brett T. | 10:57 PM on April 25, 2013

The Boston Globe is reporting tonight that anti-terror authorities in Massachusetts learned about the FBI’s interactions with Tamerlan Tsarvaev around the same time the rest of the nation did — a day after the lethal Boston Marathon terrorist bombings that killed three and injured hundreds.

The Boston Regional Intelligence Center and the Commonwealth Fusion Center in Maynard, which are supposed to serve as clearinghouses for information about potential threats, were unaware that the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev as part of a three-month investigation after Russian agents alerted US officials to his increasing radicalization, officials said.

“We were not privy to the tip,’’ said David Procopio, the spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police, which oversees the Fusion Center. “They didn’t share that information with us.”

After Sept. 11, 2001, much was made of the “Gorelick Wall” that prevented federal agencies from sharing information that could have allowed them to connect the dots on possible terrorist activity. The Globe’s report seems to suggest not much has changed over the decade since.