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Chechen Connection Worries Philadelphia-Based Terrorism Expert

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By John McDevitt

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A local terrorism expert says  authorities need to do everything they can to capture alive the one surviving Boston bombing suspect (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev) so they can gather information about his and his late brother's possible involvement with Chechen rebels.

turzanski
(Ed Turzanski. Photo provided)

"It is very disconcerting that they now come to the United States," says Edward Turzanski, with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, based in Philadelphia.  "Because Chechens have taken their fight abroad to pick up the cause of other people as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is very disconcerting that they now come to the United States -- because it would strain credulity that it was only these two," he says.

He says that Chechen separatists have been fighting against Russian authorities for nearly two decades, and in recent years have shown up in other places, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, to fight the US and other coalition troops.

He says the rebel group has been known to use pressure cooker bombs.

A terrorism expert says

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