Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on welfare: Were Boston bombings taxpayer-funded?

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on welfare: Were Boston bombings taxpayer-funded?

Tamerlan TsarnaevWe should all have been paying closer attention to the Obama White House’s noodling around with the work requirements for welfare eligibility last summer. Apparently, the forms of “gainful employment” under the administration directive were extended not only to include bed rest and journal writing but homemade bomb making.

The Boston Herald reports that Massachusetts “state officials confirmed last night that [Tamerlan] Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving [welfare] benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter…. The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money.” [Emphasis added]

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, Alec Loftus, is quoted as saying that the Tsarnaevs “were not receiving transitional assistance benefits at the time of the incident,” referring to last Monday’s terrorist bombing, which killed three and injured 260. By the same token, Loftus declined to specify what manner of benefits or amount the family was receiving or when they began receiving benefits.

Since relatives have indicated that Tamerlan’s descent into extremist Islam began around 2008 or 2009 — when he began to seek out jihadist websites — the possibility is strong that his radicalization occurred on the taxpayers’ dime.

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Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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