Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the brothers who are suspected to have bombed the Boston Marathon, were on a “jihad mission” motivated by radical Islam.
Graham also claimed Dzhokhar, who was captured alive on Friday, should be declared an “enemy combatant.”
“They were on a jihad mission and the reason you want to capture a terrorist is to find out about what other terrorist are up to,” Graham said on Fox News on Saturday.
Law enforcement authorities killed Tamerlan Thursday night in a shootout; Dzhokhar, who fled on foot after eluding cops, was captured on Friday after a day-long manhunt. Dzhokhar was hiding in a docked boat that was in the back of a Watertown home.
Tamerlan may have been influenced by radical Islamists in Chechnya; he had taken a six-month trip abroad that authorities are investigating.
“Ask the people in Boston. Radical jihadists are trying to attack us here at home. Every day we face threats from radical Islamists and they are coming through our back yard and trying to radicalize American citizens,” Graham said, according to Talking Points Memo. “The reason we wanted to capture him alive is find out about the attack and find out who he trained with and what connections to… terrorism.”
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