During a visit to Boston Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey says he believes authorities are ready in terms of security for the trial of marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
"If I start talking about potential threats it could affect the trial, so I've got to be very careful. The U.S. Marshals service together with the FBI and others have a pretty good handle on how to protect both the places and the people who are near the places," he said.
He was also mum on any specifics about any further charges involving patronage against state agencies following the Massachusetts probation trial; about the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's friend Ibragim Todashev; or Stoughton-raised alleged terrorist believed to be in Syria, Ahmad Abousamra.
"There's so much in my teeny little head that I can't remember what I can say about that or can't. So the dumb look is not faked," he added.
Where he did open up a bit more was in the fight against terror, Comey called it a two-pronged problem, with the first specifically being the changing face of al-Qaeda and ISIL.
“My sense is we have stalled ISIL and starting to with our partners to roll them back,” Comey said.
He also pointed to the threat of homegrown violent extremists.
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“And they get the training that they need to engage in violence all while in their basement, or in their bedroom in their pajamas. These homegrown violent extremists are increasingly a threat that converges with the ISIL threat, because ISIL is simply calling on these people, just kill somebody. If you can kill somebody in uniform all the better. If you can videotape it, best of all,” Comey said.
When asked if there is any credible threat to Boston from any of those homegrown extremists, he said, "We have in each of our field offices open investigations on potentially homegrown violent extremists and Boston is no exception."
