One of the Boston bomb suspects was added to a terrorism database 18 months ago at the request of the CIA. Officials said Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (Tide) on the request of the CIA. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22289200 The Russian authorities had alerted US counterparts to the activities of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whose family has its origins in the war-torn Russian republic of Chechnya. About six months before the CIA requested his name be added to Tide, the FBI asked the Russians for more information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The C.I.A. asked the National Counterterrorism Center, the nation’s main counterterrorism agency, to add his name to a watch list as a precaution, an American intelligence official said Wednesday. Other agencies, including the State Department, the Homeland Security Department and the F.B.I., were alerted. The F.B.I.’s field office in Boston added Mr. Tsarnaev’s name to a second watch list, the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, or TECS, which was set up to send an electronic message to customs officials whenever Mr. Tsarnaev left the country. When Tamerlan Tsarnaev left the country on Jan. 12, 2012, for a six-month trip to Dagestan and Chechnya, predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus region of Russia, his flight reservation set off a security alert to customs authorities, the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, told a Senate committee on Tuesday.

The suspects’ parents, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, are due to arrive in the US on Thursday, Russian media reported.”I am not angry at anyone. I want to go find out the truth.” Anzor said according to NYT

The Associated Press quoted two unnamed officials as saying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been unarmed when he was captured.