Saudi Arabia Warned U.S. of Boston Bomber, White House Denies

Interesting news coming from across the pond:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012, long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and injured hundreds, according to a senior Saudi government official with direct knowledge of the document.

The Saudi warning, the official told MailOnline, was separate from the multiple red flags raised by Russian intelligence in 2011, and was based on human intelligence developed independently in Yemen.

Citing security concerns, the Saudi government also denied an entry visa to the elder Tsarnaev brother in December 2011, when he hoped to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the source said. Tsarnaev's plans to visit Saudi Arabia have not been previously disclosed.

The Saudis' warning to the U.S. government was also shared with the British government. 'It was very specific’ and warned that 'something was going to happen in a major U.S. city,' the Saudi official said during an extensive interview.

It 'did name Tamerlan specifically,' he added. The 'government-to-government' letter, which he said was sent to the Department of Homeland Security at the highest level, did not name Boston or suggest a date for his planned attack.

If true, the account will produce added pressure on the Homeland Security department and the White House to explain their collective inaction after similar warnings were offered about Tsarnaev by the Russian government.

A DHS official denied, however, that the agency received any such warning from Saudi intelligence about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. 

'DHS has no knowledge of any communication from the Saudi government regarding information on the suspects in the Boston Marathon Bombing prior to the attack,' MailOnline learned from one Homeland Security official who declined to be named in this report.

The White House took a similar view. 'We and other relevant U.S. government agencies have no record of such a letter being received,' said Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the president’s National Security Council.

What did we know and when did we know it.

We need facts, we need them quickly.

And in related news:

Boston police have taken three more suspects into custody in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing, the department said in a brief item posted Wednesday on its Twitter account.

The police department emphasized that "there is no threat to public safety."

...

NBC News' Pete Williams reported that the three new suspects were roommates of Dzhokhar's at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and allegedly helped him remove some items from their dorm room in the days after the bombing.

There was no immediate indication that the suspects had any prior knowledge of the bombings.

NBC reported that authorities had been watching the three suspects for about 10 days. Two of them were taken into custody several days ago on "immigration issue" and the third was arrested today.

One can't help but wonder if political correctness has led to a bungling of information that might've prevented what took place in Boston.

Time will tell.