MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is not that interested in finding out a motive for last week’s bombing of the Boston Marathon, but instead focused on prosecuting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old ethnic Chechen who was apprehended by authorities on Saturday.
While Matthews was concerned about the video tape that puts Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan, 26, now deceased, at the Marathon, former FBI profiler and hostage negotiator Clint Van Zandt was interested in gathering intelligence to find out if more attacks were being planned.
CLINT VAN ZANDT, FBI PROFILER: No, it’s really coming together. I mean, there’s -- as terrible as this case is and was, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of heavy lifting. We’ve got the two primary individuals. It’s obvious that they had hands on the devices. The pieces we don’t have, Chris, are where was their inspiration? Where did they get the guidance? Who taught them how to build the bombs? Where did they build them? These are a lot of questions.
MATTHEWS: Why is that important? Why is that important to -- is that important to prosecuting? I mean, what difference does it make why they did it if they did it? I’m being tough here. But I don’t know whether, when you look at all this evidence --
VAN ZANDT: No, no, no.
MATTHEWS: Go ahead.
VAN ZANDT: No, it’s important to the case because we want to make sure there aren’t other that should be prosecuted. ‘Is there anybody else in the immediate Boscon area who gave aid and comfort, assistance, money, guidance, teaching?’ If not, how far does this go?
Did that six month trip to Russia and the Kazakhs, at the 26-year-old, now deceased, suspected terrorist or bomber. Did he receive bomb training there? We, you know, can’t quit and just say, okay, we got two guys, we’re done with it, let’s move on again.
As you know, today they had another incident, it took place in Canada. (Hardball, April 22, 2013)