Al Qaeda magazine found on bomber widow's computer

Washington Post:

Federal law enforcement officials are sharpening their focus on the widow of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings after finding al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine and other radical Islamist material on her computer, according to law enforcement officials.

The probe of the computer belonging to Katherine Russell, 24, the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is part of the effort by investigators to determine whether Russell knew anything about the April 15 bombing plot or helped the Tsarnaev brothers hide from authorities, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving suspect, has told investigators that he and his brother learned to build the pressure-cooker bombs from English-language Inspire magazine, and that they were partly influenced by the online sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda propagandist who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

According to officials, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also told investigators that he and his brother built the bombs in Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Cambridge apartment, where the elder brother lived with Russell and their daughter. Officials said that Russell called her husband when she saw his photograph on television — following the FBI’s release of the pictures of the suspects — but did not notify authorities.

One of the key questions for investigators is whether the radical Islamist materials on Russell’s computer belonged to her or were downloaded by her husband or someone else.

Russell’s attorney did not return phone calls for a comment. The attorney, Amato DeLuca, has previously said his client played no role in the plot and was shocked to learn of the involvement of her husband and brother-in-law.

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Her communications with her bomber husband after the release of the FBI photos could be a problem for her.  There were also traces of the bomb making throughout the small apartment she lived in with her husband.  

Earlier we heard that she was working 80 hours a week and was caring for their toddler daughter, so it is possible the bomb making took place while she was not around.  It is also possible that her husband downloaded the material on her computer without her knowledge.