As authorities continue
their relentless pursuit of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev, another type of investigation has been developing online: a
hunt for any digital footprint Tsarnaev might have left in the days and
months preceding Monday's tragedy. Now, after the "uncovering" and
subsequent dismissal of numerous fake accounts, it appears the
19-year-old's legitimate Twitter presence has discovered.
BroBible was first to reveal the @J_tsar account, owned by a user named Jahar, and the evidence pointing to its authenticity is quickly piling up. Aside from BuzzFeed claiming to have verified the account as genuine, numerous posts authored by Jahar line up with Tsarnaev's background; more than once, he mentions his Chechen heritage. He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the same high school as the FBI's suspect. An old profile picture closely resembles Tsarnaev.
Another tweet tells us that, much like the young man currently on the run, this individual has spent approximately a decade living in the United States. A photo of Jahar shows him wearing wrestling shorts
with Rindge's logo — Tsarnaev was known to excel at the sport. And a
tweet from May 2012 makes clear that the account owner's name is in fact
Dzhokhar.
Glossing over the whole of
J_tsar's Twitter activity, you'd be hard-pressed to tell him apart from
most other 19-year-olds. There are references aplenty to TV shows, junk
food, and weed. Jahar reveals himself to be a fan of Breaking Bad
and rap. But beyond the pop cultural postings, there's also insight
pointing to his faith. Jahar's first direct mention of Islam came in December of last year.
"Brothers at the mosque either think I'm a convert or that I'm from
Algeria or Syria, just the other day a guy asked me how I came to
Islam," he wrote. From there, the mentions of his religious affiliation
ramp up, but are still far outweighed by other, less serious posts.
Nowhere in his Twitter timeline does Jahar share views that resemble
radicalism. In fact, he seeks to defend Islam on occasion from those who
associate the religion with terrorisim.
Jahar also got political on occasion, revealing himself to be a supporter of the 9/11 truther movement
and retweeting President Barack Obama's election victory message. But
after more than a year posting about college, his friends, and other
subjects, earlier this month @J_tsar's deposition took on a decidedly
different tone. In two tweets that will undoubtedly see intense
scrutiny, Jahar first says, "If you have the knowledge and the
inspiration all that's left is to take action." That popped up on April
7th, exactly one week ahead of Monday's bombing. "Most of you are
conditioned by the media," he would follow up on the 10th.
Should this prove to be
Tsarnaev's account, it seems his alleged actions in the Marathon attack
didn't discourage him from tweeting. "I'm a stress free kind of guy," he
posted Tuesday night. Jahar's last Twitter interaction would come on
Wednesday, when he quoted Muslim scholar Mufti Ismail Menk.
As for those who reportedly
knew Jahar, many seem to be in disbelief with his implied role in the
terrorist attack. To them, he didn't have the makings of the man who set
down that bag loaded with a bomb on Boylston Street. It seems those who
interacted with Tsarnaev are torn trying to distinguish between the
friend they remember and the person who carried out such a sinister act.
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