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 The information, including a telephone call in which Tsarnaev and
his mother discussed Islamic jihad, would probably have prompted
harsher scrutiny of the suspect, the paper said.
"They found that the Russians did not provide all the information
that they had on him back then, and based on everything that was
available, the FBI did all that it could," a senior U.S. official
familiar with the review said, according to the paper.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
Two Chechen brothers, Tamerlan and his younger brother Dzhokhar, are
suspected of planting pressure-cooker bombs near the race's finish
line last April 15 in an attack that killed three people and wounded
more than 260.
Tamerlan died after a gunfight with police while the younger brother is awaiting trial on charges that could lead to the death
penalty if he is convicted.
The new report, authored by the inspector general of the Office of
Intelligence Community, has not been made public, though U.S.
lawmakers are to be briefed on it on Thursday, the Times said.
This latest review comes after a March congressional report outlined
what it called "missed opportunities" that could have prevented the
attack.
That March report investigated the U.S. probe of Tamerlan Tsarnaev
after a 2011 warning to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by
Russian authorities that he had become radicalized and might return
to Russia to join extremist groups there.
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After the Russian warning, a task force of federal, state and local
authorities launched an investigation that included checks of
government databases and interviews with Tsarnaev and his parents.
It found no evidence of terrorist activity.
But after an initial FBI probe in Boston, Russian officials refused
several requests for additional information they had on Tsarnaev,
although, at the time, U.S. law enforcement officials viewed him as
a greater threat to Russia, the Times reported.
The new report found that Russians shared intelligence with the FBI
only after the bombing attack, such as the telephone conversation
about Islamic jihad.
"Had they known what the Russians knew, they probably would have been
able to do more under our investigative guidelines, but would they
have uncovered the plot? That's very hard to say," the Times
reported a senior U.S. official as saying.
Boston-area FBI agents who investigated the Russian intelligence in
2011 could have conducted more interviews and should take steps to
better share information with local and state agencies, the report
says, according to the Times.
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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