Saudi national not a suspect, not a person of interest in Boston bombings
By Jake Tapper
Boston - The Department of Homeland Security tells CNN that there has been some confusion and misreporting regarding two different Saudi nationals.
There is one Saudi national who is in a Boston hospital, and has been questioned by the FBI because he was at the marathon during the terrorist attack.
He is not a suspect, nor is he a person of interest. He was an individual at the marathon, and therefore, like so many individuals, has been questioned.
There is a second Saudi national from the Boston area who is in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for being in violation of his visa. This ICE custody has nothing to do with the Boston Marathon, officials from the Department of Homeland Security said.
At a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-South Carolina, asked Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano about the issue. Duncan appeared to believe a news report that the Saudi injured in the Boston bombing is being deported.
"We've got this guy who was there. We know he was there. He was arrested, he wasn't arrested, was detained in the hospital covered with blood, he was at the scene. And yet we're going to deport him," said Duncan at the hearing. "We're going to remove him from the scene."
Napolitano said she was "unaware of anyone who is being deported for national security concerns at all related to Boston," and dismissed Duncan's repeated questions about the issue, responding to his final question with a blunt rebuke.
"I'm not going to answer that question. It is so full with misstatements and misapprehensions and it's just not worthy of an answer," said Napolitano.
The FBI was contacted regarding the Saudi national who was taken into ICE custody, but Homeland Security tells CNN that individual is in no way connected to the Boston Marathon bombing. |
