Rep. Keating Visits Sochi To Assess Terror Threat
BOSTON (CBS) - Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating says "there is reason to be concerned and vigilant" about safety as the world gets closer to the Winter Games in Sochi.
Keating arrived home Wednesday night from a fact-finding mission to Russia during which he visited Moscow and Sochi. Keating sits on the U.S. House's Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees.
He was there during a particularly tumultuous time, as Russian security officials are actively engaged in a manhunt for suspected would-be terrorists who may target the Olympic games. They are focused specifically on Islamic extremists in the republic of Dagestan, a few hundred miles south of the host city of Sochi.
It is, coincidentally, the exact location where Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent several months prior to the Boston Marathon bombings.
Congressman Keating says he learned Tsarnaev met more than once with a terrorist recruiter when he was in Russia, in the area Russians now fear could be breeding so-called Lone Wolf terrorists who threaten the Olympics.
But Keating also said the weeks and months after the marathon bombings marked the high-water mark in terms of cooperation between Russian security officials and the United States.
Keating says Russian authorities made it clear that they're keeping quiet and they want to be the ones in charge of Sochi-related security. "Russia's not great at sharing information with the United States, that's not a news flash," Keating said.
