REUTERS Suspects' mother: Sons 'set up'

The mother of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings is charging that her sons had been set up.

“It’s impossible, impossible for them to, for both of them to do such things, so I am really, really, really telling you this is a set-up,” said Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, speaking on CNN on Friday afternoon.


She is described as the mother of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who have been identified as the two suspects in the bloody Monday bombings at the annual marathon. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with authorities Thursday, reports said, while Dzhokhar, the younger brother, was apprehended late Friday.

( PHOTOS: Police converge on Boston suburbs)

“My youngest one was raised actually from eight years, he was raised in America,” she said. “And my oldest son, he is like, really proper raised in our house. Nobody talked about terrorism.”

She said that the FBI was aware of Tamerlan.

“And my son Tamerlan really got involved in the religion, you know, religious politics five years ago, so he… never, never told me that he would be like on the side of jihad,” Tsarnaeva continued. “He was counseled by FBI for three, five years. They knew what my son was doing. They knew what actions and what sites on the Internet he was going. How could this happen? How could they — they were following every step of him and they’re telling today this is a terrorist act.”

( Also on POLITICO: Portrait of suspects takes shape)

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), also appearing on CNN, bashed Tsarnaeva’s accusations of framing.

“Again, it must be traumatic for the mother and the father but, again, to be saying the FBI set them up or the FBI controlled them, is just absolutely wrong,” said King, the former chairman of the House’s Homeland Security Committee. “It’s really offensive. Here’s a country that gave them sanctuary and asylum, the United States, and to turn against the country like this, [it’s] bad enough what their sons did, but for the parents to attack the country, to me, is wrong.”

( Also on POLITICO: Father: Boston suspect an 'angel')

Breanna Edwards contributed to this report.