hello. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we're following important breaking news out of boston. police now say three additional people have been detained in the marathon bombing investigation. let's bring back ashleigh banfield right now. ashleigh shs you've been working this story. what exactly do we know about these three individuals? i believe they're students at the university of massachusetts, the dartmouth campus there, what do we know about what's going on? >> well, this is in such the early offerings of this story at this point. but our sources are telling cnn at least at this point, wolf, that homeland security are telling us that two of these students had contact with dzhokhar tsarnaev, may have been roommates with dzhokhar tsarnaev. and at this point they're saying

officials of firsthand knowledge are saying they are new bedford students, they'd been arrested on charges of making false statements and also conspiracy to obstruct justice directly in connection with the case of the boston marathon bombings. these were dzhokhar tsarnaev's roommates, apparently. the third suspect -- or the third person who's been arrested in this case and possibly facing the charges at the federal courthouse later today is also a student, but we are being told that it is not kathrine russell. it's not katy russell, the widow of tamerlan tsarnaev, the older brother who died in the shoout with police the night before his brother was taken into custody. dzhokhar tsarnaev's roommates had apparently, wolf, detained for quite some time now, several days on immigration violation charges, which surprised some of us just in the fact that investigators had plenty of time to hold these two students if they wanted to have access to them or question them without having to officially charge them

and start a timeline, a legal timeline rolling in which you have to actually have your ducks in a row. so it's interesting to hear that they have now actually been brought in on this suspicion. but department of homeland security firsthand knowledge saying these are two new bedford students arrested on making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct just in the case of the boston marathon bombings. the third student arrested is a u.s. citizen we're also told. the boston police, wolf, i'm just getting details as i'm talking to you so you'll have to bear with me. the boston police said three additional people have been taken into custody. they date the marathon bombings we all know now as april 15th. we have additional information, again, with the homeland security official who has spoken to cnn, but i want to add this as well. and perhaps, wolf, this is the most significant reporting for the people who live here in boston where i am, many of them

daily coming out to see the messages and tributes left behind for those killed and injured in those bombings. the police in boston wanted to make sure people know -- i'm going to quote them "there is no threat to the public," wolf. after announcing these three people had been taken into custody. no threat to the public. significant for those who live here. perhaps maybe even significant for the miranda timing as well, which we all know there is a public safety exception which precludes you from having to mirandize as perhaps others in the case. i also want to report that at no time is there an actual tie to the actual bomb making or the carrying out of the actual crime itself with regard to these suspects. these are all issues after the fact as we're being told by the homeland security source. so a lot developing at this point live on location here in boston, wolf. >> ashleigh, standby for a moment. let's get some legal analysis of

what's going on. professor alan dershowitz is there on the ground in boston. he's the harvard law professor joining us now. alan, let's go through these specific charges, if these students, at least two of them arrested on making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice, we know they've been questioned now over the more than two weeks basically going back to the days that they discovered -- nearly two weeks i should say, the day they discovered the tsarnaev brothers were involved in this and these are the roommates, if you will, students, colleagues of the younger tsarnaev brother, what do you make of these two specific charges making false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice? >> well, they are typical charges that grow out of these kinds of investigations. many people don't realize that if you lie to any federal official, even if it's a little white lie or an innocent lie or an exculpatory lie saying i really didn't know anything, any lie of that kind can be a

federal crime. also, if you help somebody ask destroy evidence or hide evidence or conceal information, that can be an obstruction of justice. and if you do it together with that person, it's a conspiracy to obstruct justice. so what we know is, number one, they haven't been charged with anything relating to the making of the bomb or the planting of the bomb. everything they've been charged with it relates to what they did after the bombing occurred. and they're serious crimes. probably they're being charged in order to squeeze them in order to get them to provide more information on the threat they will not only be deported but also prosecuted for these serious crimes that carry years in prison. >> two of them apparently from kas ak stan, one of them a u.s. citizen, what does it make if any about this particular situation if they are legal residents, student visas.

>> well, it gives government more power if they aren't citizens. they can be deported. if they are citizens, they can still be prosecuted. the criminal law doesn't apply differently to citizens kp noncitizens, but the immigration status, the ability to detain them as two of them were detained previously based on they're not being citizens and being out of, kind of, sync, with their papers gives the government far more authority in detention and also more flexibility in how to deal with them. but other than that in terms of criminal charges it's identical. >> all right. alan dershowitz, hold on. ashleigh banfield, hold on. tom fuentes, former fbi assistant director now cnn law enforcement analyst is joining us right now. what do you make of this breaking news right now? three additional people, we believe students from the university of massachusetts,

dartmouth campus have now been arrested, tom? >> wolf, i think it says that the fbi was suspicious of them from the very beginning and used the fact that they were illegally here overstaying their student visa as the reason that would allow them to detain them long enough to develop the evidence that they needed to bring the charges today. so these are a couple of people that they were already wondering from the beginning if they could have been helping the brothers either before, during or after the bombing. my information is -- >> go ahead, tom. what's your information? >> just that these charges have to do with after the bombing, that helping dispose of evidence, which is obstruction, everything professor dershowitz just mentioned, lying to the fbi, obstruction of justice and because there were a couple of them doing it together, that makes it conspiracy. >> tom, hold on for a moment.

drew griffin is joining us on the phone. he's been speaking to an attorney for, we believe, one of these three. is that right, drew? one of these three who's been arrested? unfortunately i think we lost our connection with drew. we'll get back to drew in a moment. tom fuentes is still with us. pick up that final thought you were making, tom, on the information you're getting. there's no evidence to believe, no suggestion that any of these three may have been directly involved or even indirectly involved in the actual planting of a bomb or building of a bomb, anything before the boston marathon bombing, but they may -- keyword may, allegedly have been involved in helping to cover-up evidence or mislead police, is that right? >> right. that's correct, wolf. it doesn't mean that they weren't involved in helping in the bombing, just means as of now they're not going to be charged with that.

they are still working the investigation. but they are going to go ahead and bring the charges now that after the fact they may have disposed of items that could have been considered evidence. and in addition made false statements to the fbi. again, under the law you do not have to talk to the fbi in an official investigation, but if you do, you have to tell the truth. apparently they did talk but were not truthful and at least they can demonstrate a lack of truthfulness at some point, which is why they're charging them. >> they're being charged with making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice. drew griffin, i think we connected with you. drew, you've spoken with an attorney for one of these three, is that right? >> yeah, robert stall is the attorney for -- confirmed to us that the photo that we've been looking at for a couple of weeks now in the times square that his client is in the center of that

picture, wolf. and according to robert stall, the second suspect now we know is next to him. basically standing on the right side of his client. so the three people at the center of the picture are the one who is are involved with this. and i might add that the attorney that we have been speaking to for quite a while was pretty adamant early on that his client had nothin to do with the bombing or the plot. but as tom fuentes just said may have been wrapped up in some lies when the fbi came calling. this was the friday after the bombing. >> because -- so you're speaking to robert stall, i want to be precise, who is the attorney representing one of these students. and there was another student you were pointing out as well. there's two.

so what about the third person? apparently a u.s. citizen? >> have no knowledge whatsoever about that. there was a third student as you recall briefly detained but released last friday who was in the same apartment with these two students. we believe that person was a female and that she was a u.s. citizen. but we have no idea if that person is the third person involved. i know that we have many other reporters who are going through official channels to find out who the third person charged is here, wolf. but at this time we just really don't know. >> and we do know because of good reporting by david fitzpatrick of cnn special investigations unit this goes back about ten days or so ago that these two students, drew, they were picked up and questioned for about ten hours by the fbi back on april 19th just hours after the younger

tsarnaev brother surrendered to authorities he was hiding out in that boat in watertown, massachusetts. during these past ten days, have these kazak students been detained or held or have they been free? >> what happened was is they were initially detained. i believe we have pictures of them taken into custody with handcuffs on that friday. it was a raid that took place prior to dzhokhar tsarnaev's capture. and we were told specifically that the reason there was such a heavy handed raid on that apartment is because they thought dzhokhar tsarnaev might be in that apartment. these two students and that third student i mentioned were all released. and then the next day immigration and customs control officers came back and placed these two kazak students in custody based on student visa violations. they have remained in custody --

or detention, since that time. which, wolf, is somewhat unusual for a student visa violation. but our sources were telling us at the time this was out of the abundance of caution. they wanted to make sure they had these two students as the investigation was progressing into what actually -- boston marathon and now some two weeks later these two students have apparently been charged. >> formally charged. and we're going to get more specifics in the next few hours. and as we reported a while ago after they were detained, these two kazak students, we reported immigration law requires that students who are here on legitimate student visas "regularly attend classes if they want to maintain those student visas." but they said at least one of the students did not -- had not been attending classes. and that was the reason they gave for keeping him under detention.

drew, standby. everyone standby. we're following the breaking news out of boston. there have been three arrests in connection with what's been going on in the boston investigation, the bombing investigation. we're going to continue the breaking news coverage right after this. #%tia[ [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company.

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friends, associates of the younger tsarnaev brother, dzhokhar tsarnaev, who's now being held in a prison outside of boston himself. susan candiotti is getting new information for us. what else are you picking up, susan? >> hi, wolf. this new information now gives us a clearer picture of what these charges are about. remember that we are hearing from two u.s. government sources that they involve lying to investigators and a conspiracy to obstruct justice. as to the lying, according to u.s. federal law enforcement official, i am told it involved knowing about the whereabouts or lying about seeing one or both of the suspects after the bombing. so the students allegedly did not tell the truth about seeing them or knowing about their whereabouts after the bombing took place. the second charge involving obstruction of justice involves

them being involved allegedly in throwing out items from that dorm room that they shared with dzhokhar, throwing things into the dumpster and getting rid of them. now, let's remind you what we've been reporting about that. we have been reporting that what led authorities to the landfill for that two-day search last week came in part from information, leads they were getting from the suspect himself but also other investigative leads. those leads are also came from, i am told from our source, from the interview with these students. so that is important new information, wolf, that we're learning to help clarify what this is about. and we want to remind you as well that the boston police department is saying that the arrest of these three individuals does not pose any public threat or threat to public safety at this time. we also do expect that as early

as this afternoon that these three individuals will be making their first appearance in court to these charges as early as this afternoon, wolf. >> and which court are we talking about? in new bedford, is that right? >> we're talking about the landfill -- that's right, in new bedford near the university of massachusetts dartmouth campus. >> i mean, they would appear in a local court? this is not a federal charge. is this -- this would be a local courtroom in new bedford, massachusetts, right? >> no, wolf. these will be federal charges. >> these are federal charges. >> these three individuals are now in the custody of the fbi. that is correct. >> okay. i want to be precise. they're not in custody of local police. they're in custody of the fbi. this is obviously a much, much bigger deal if the fbi has decided to bring these formal charges. >> oh, absolutely. and the way that this came down is that the boston police department put out a tweet that three people were in custody.

so naturally the initial thought was they're in the custody of the boston police department. but the boston police said, no, they're in the custody of the fbi and we're being referred to federal authorities for more information on the charges. now, those charges as we understand it have not yet been publicly revealed at this time. this is what we're learning about them from our sources. >> has the fbi put out any statement yet? >> not as yet. they are, you know, telling us to hold tight. same thing from the u.s. attorney's office. we'll have to wait and see. that's why we continue to work our sources that we have been talking with continuously throughout and giving us very good information about this investigation, wolf. >> we have confirmed the fbi is now custody of these three students. brian todd is also working the story. what else are you picking up, brian? >> wolf, we have confirmation from the attorneys from both the kazakhstani students detained.

confirmation from these attorneys that those two students have been arrested in connection with this. the attorney confirms his client and the other student named diaz -- are two of the three students under arrest in custody now. one source close to familiar with the investigation tells us they're understanding is they'll be charged with some form of obstruction of justice. whether it's conspiracy or maybe conspiracy to obstruct. that is what they know now. and that's what's expected at the john joseph federal courthouse in boston at some point this afternoon. they're expected to make an appearance here at some point this afternoon. neither of these two sources could give us the name of the third suspect. >> the third suspect as being a u.s. citizen as opposed to the kazakhstan students. we expect to hear from a federal

judge in boston. anything else you're picking up, brian? >> just that there is a swarm of media out here outside the courthouse now, wolf, waiting for any word. we're watching entrances, front and side, to see if any sign of these suspects arriving. and of course we're trying to dig on a name of the third suspect. we don't have it just yet. >> and i just want to show that picture once again. those two kazakhstan students now arrested by the fbi. this is when they visited last year. they visited times square together with dzhokhar tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspect in the boston marathon bombings. two other students, two other friends, we're not showing their pictures, but we are showing the two kazak students together with dzhokhar tsarnaev. one of our cnn assignment editors is joining us right now. lawrence, you witnessed when these guys were picked up, these two students, is that right? >> yes. i was in new bedford when they

were taken into custody. we had learned through jason kes sell on our desk that friday night three people had been taken into custody off carriage drive in new bedford. this is a very residential neighborhood. there's a lot of students who live in this neighborhood. so on saturday, me, myself and one of our photo journalists went down to check out the scene. we were there with several media and we went to the door. i had knocked on the door and asked if i could speak with them and they both kind of laughed at me, looked at me very pretentious, almost. having a great time with the media being up front. they were taking video and photos of us. at one point it looked like they were going to try to talk to us, but one of the photographers on scene started snapping photos and scared them back into the room. we were there for about five to six hours. eventually the dhs and van pulled up inside the house for about an hour and then we have video of them being taken out in

handcuffs and brought to an unknown location. there is a third person that lives in that building with the students. we were told by a neighbor either the ex or current girlfriend of dzhokhar tsarnaev. we're not sure if she's in custody, but she was living in the building. i tried to speak to her as well, she didn't want anything to do with me. we did not see her taken out into custody. this is just presumption, but she was in the building and had been taken into custody friday night. all three of them had been released and then authorities came back the next day and took the two into custody. >> i want to remind our viewers these are the two students visiting times square last year with dzhokhar tsarnaev. we took kazakhstan students -- these are the two kazak students arrested today by the fbi. there's a third person, a u.s. citizen arrested as well. we have not yet identified that

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news coverage out of boston. take a look at this picture taken last year at times square. you see to the right you see dzhokhar tsarnaev. he's under arrest as we all know one of the suspected boston bombers. but take a look to the left. two individuals, two students from kazakhstan at the university of massachusetts at dartmouth. on the left -- second from the left we're covering up the first person, but the second from the left that's azamat tazhayakov. and right in the center of the picture, kadyrbayev, the other student arrested, we believe on charges of making false statements to authorities and conspiracy to obstruct justice. charges right now. let's bring in juliette kayyem, a columnist for the "boston globe." what do you make of these dramatic developments? three arrests, two individuals

we've identified, we don't know the third person, juliette, but we do know the third person is a u.s. citizen. >> so almost immediately after the bombings and that investigation everyone remembers there was this late-night interviewing and custody of three people in an area called new bedford, that's a southern coastal town from here. that then goes away a little bit. this morning two of those individuals were before an immigration judge. very different than federal criminal charges. this is one of those sort of jurisdictions they were on student visas part of the post-9/11 architecture includes much more stringent guidelines on student immigrants. they have to prove they're still in a university in college. this morning two of them appear before the immigration judge and appear not to have known that they were about to turn around and face these criminal charges. so that's what we have right now. so there were two parallel paths

going on. the immigration charges which are not criminal, but if you're an immigrant and violate your immigration status, we can still put you before a judge. and now a much more serious criminal charges, but just to be clear to everyone, the boston police tweeted this first. i think that was -- i know that that was because, you know, we're still a little bit anxious here. they wanted to get ahead of what is obviously a concern that there might be more attacks. making it clear that there's no public safety harms or any public safety threat at this time. and for what i can tell so far from discussions i've had, these all have to do with after the fact attempts to escape, which is consistent with, you know, one of the theories we've been talking about which is the brothers seem to have no idea once they put this thing together, no idea what to do with themselves once the attack was over. they were like sort of watched it, were gleeful about the attack and then simply didn't

have an idea. so it looked like they were going to friends trying to figure out a very, very unsophisticated exit plan which looks like an included asking college friends to dispose of duffel bags outside a college dorm. the last thing, wolf, i think and i can't confirm right now, this will be before federal court this afternoon. my guess is that just given normal protocols they'll probably all be in boston. you wouldn't want a related case to be in different federal courts throughout massachusetts. so while we have new bedford and dartmouth, those in play, there probably is a strong case to just bring everything to boston where security is very strong and where the u.s. attorney's office is. >> yeah. and that's what brian todd's been reporting that the federal court in boston is probably going to be the scene where these three students will show up, be brought probably within the next few hours. and the formal charges will be filed before a judge magistrate there in boston in the federal

court. it was a little confusing as you point out because the first official word of these arrests came from boston police. so the assumption was that the boston police had arrested these three individuals. the fbi was silent on that initial boston tweet that went out when the boston police said three individuals have been arrested, details to follow. we assumed it was boston police doing it, but now we know that the fbi has formally gone ahead and arrested these individuals. two of whom have been questioned as you pointed out in the last couple days for their student visas, they were being questioned. apparently one wasn't even attending classes. that would be a violation of a student visa. so we have a picture of the three of them, juliette, at times square. it causes a lot of nervousness and fear because if these two

brothers if they wouldn't have been arrested may have been heading to times square to plant a bomb, one of their pressure cooker bombs, or do some other horrible thing in times square. so this visit to times square last year, it just brings that to the floor and raises serious questions. >> right. absolutely. and i think that's where the investigation will definitely go. i'm going to say these are the easy charges to bring against these two defendants. not easy in the sense that we're being casual about it, but if you're a prosecutor and you want to hold them, you're going to bring the charges that are most easy to prove, which is that they lied to you during the investigations and they obstructed justice. that probably has to do with them disposing of evidence. but what we don't know and the fbi and the u.s. attorney's office have been clear about this case from the beginning is that these initial charges always have the option -- you always have the option to add additional charges. so, you know, in terms of just getting them under custody, you're going to bring the charges that you can sort of

prove more easily. it could be that an investigation shows they knew something of what the brothers had planned, but right now, you know, just given what we're learning about the exit plan, right, the sort of post-marathon exit plan, it is looking much less sophisticated than than that they were sort of going to do this and plan a bunch of other things. that just contributes to an idea that they had contacts here in massachusetts, perhaps other students. doesn't mean that there weren't foreign connections. it just means a lot of this planning went on here, that's why there's been so much focus in boston. and going to the point i said before, wolf, that's why it is important that the boston police are still a part of this. you know, there were discussions about how much they knew from the fbi about those original investigations several years ago. very important that the boston police take management of the public safety issues here in the city given what this city has

been through over the last two weeks. i'm glad they were the first to tweet because people just want to feel that their city is calm and moving on, so to speak. >> several members of congress over the past few days broadly hinting they suspected there would be more arrests and today three more arrests. juliette, standby. we're getting more information coming into the cnn newsroom from our reporters covering the story. dramatic news. three additional arrests in the boston bombing investigation.

welcome back. we're following breaking news in the boston bombing investigations. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. boston police say there have been three more arrests. we now know the fbi federal authorities have arrested three individuals. you see two of them there, two students from kazakhstan who went to times square last year with dzhokhar tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the boston

bombings. those two students you see there from left to right on those photographs, we'll identify them. they have been named the to the further to the left is azamat tazhayakov and dia diaz kadyrbayev right next to dzhokhar tsarnaev. the third student arrested today, a u.s. citizen whom we have not yet identified. susan candiotti is working her sources. she's on the ground for us. what else are you picking up, susan? >> well, wolf, even more clarification and explanation for the charges that according to our law enforcement official is telling us that these men will be facing. now, the charges, remember are twofold. one is lying to investigators. and one is allegedly conspireing to obstruct justice. excuse me. the first one involving lying to investigators involves allegedly

not telling the truth about knowing of the whereabouts after the bombing took place. that's what the charge is. as the fbi interviewed them, they allegedly lied about knowing about their whereabouts or seeing them after the bombing. the second charge involves obstruction of justice. and here's where we have a bit of new information. we are told that this involves moving things -- they are accused of allegedly moving things from a dorm room into a dumpster. those things include, according to our official source, fireworks packed into backpacks and then thrown into a dumpster. possibly among other items as well. now, these are the kinds of leads that i was told early on that kept authorities having a high interest in these individuals in these students who up until that point up until today only charges with student

visa violations allegedly for not attending classes regularly. well, now we know a bit more about that. so these leads are what led investigates to search a landfill near that college dorm for two days. now, they've never said exactly what they did find. i'm told that they did not find a laptop. however, i was given a no comment at the time about what they did find there. and now we know allegedly that -- or we've learned they were looking for backpacks filled with explosives as well as looking for a laptop. >> do we know if they ever found any of those things at that landfill? >> that remains unclear. still working on that part of it, but perhaps we'll learn more when these charges are laid out and when they are possibly unsealed when these individuals make their first appearance in court as early as this afternoon. >> i just want to be clear on this, susan, if in fact these

three students knew that the fbi was searching for dzhokhar tsarnaev, that he was suspected in the boston bombing as a result of the photograph that the fbi had released and they then went ahead and spoke with them and he asked them to remove anything from that room, they did that. that is basically a pretty serious charge dealing with this kind of sensitive material. these guys could end up in jail for a long time potentially. >> these are very serious charges, wolf, you're absolutely right. if you know something about a crime allegedly having been committed and knowing that these individuals may be on the run as these two bombing suspects were, and if authorities can prove that, yes, indeed, that is a very, very serious crime. >> all right. susan, i know you're getting more information. brian todd's getting more information. all of our reporters are getting more details. we're awaiting an appearance, we suspect, in the coming hours by these three students in a federal courthouse in boston.

they are now being held by the fbi as susan's been reporting on charges of making false statements to federal authorities and conspiracy to obstruct justice. we'll take a quick break and resume the breaking news coverage right after this. ♪ if loving you is wrong ♪ i don't wanna be right [ record scratch ] what?! it's not bad for you. it just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal -- heart-healthy, whole grain oats. you can't go wrong loving it.

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for a risk-free 30 day trial offer and free dvd and brochure. get the hearing aid that can. lyric from phonak. lyric can. we're going to show you some video now. this is exclusive video that cnn shot. this is back on april 20th in new bedford, massachusetts. you see federal authorities, federal agents not arresting but detaining these two students from kazakhstan, students at the university of massachusetts dartmouth campus on what was then described as immigration inquiries whether they had violated their visas to attend the university of massachusetts. and you see police going to this apartment in new bedford, massachusetts, and bringing them into these vehicles, detaining them bringing them down for

questioning. now, students have now been identified, two of them, azamat tazhayakov and dias ckadyrbayev. they together with a u.s. citizen have been charged with making false statements to federal authorities and conspiracy to obstruct justice. brian todd is working the story. he's in boston for us. brian, you're over at the federal court in boston, i take it, where these three individuals, one u.s. citizen and two from kazakhstan, are expected to make an appearance later this afternoon? >> that's right, wolf. they're expected here at the john j.mokley courthouse in boston any time now, probably some time this afternoon we're told. not told the time they're going to appear, but we have cameras all around for the time that they do show up here. again, the reporting that we have according to sources, attorneys for them and also other sources familiar with this

case that dias kadyrbayev and azamat tazhayakov, the two students at dartmouth with dzhokhar tsarnaev are being charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements. separately we've got some information from a law enforcement official who's been briefed about the arrest saying that the allegation is these three people, these two students and another u.s. citizen who we have not named yet, are being accused of removing things from dzhokhar tsarnaev's dorm room. we of course know that a landfill was searched near umass dartmouth in the days after the bombings and after dzhokhar tsarnaev was arrested. officials then were looking for a laptop, i believe susan candiotti has since reported that the laptop and possibly a backpack full of fireworks were some of the things they were looking for in that search and didn't find them. so what they were actually being charged with disposing of that will probably come out in more detail this afternoon, but we are expecting them to appear at this courthouse later this afternoon, wolf.

>> and usually in a situation like this they will, federal authorities, put out their formal documents, an affidavit if you will, outlining the specific charges. they put that out on the internet very often as we know. those of us who have covered these kinds of federal cases, nothing has come out yet though, right, brian? >> not as far as we know, wolf. and one of the attorneys for one of these suspects told me that this was by way of a complaint, but as of a couple hours ago the complaint was still under seal. some of that may be coming out online and maybe in papers that we'll get here at court this afternoon. also important to remember that it was on april 19th, just four days after the bombings, and it was the same day that dzhokhar tsarnaev was arrested that three people including these two suspects were taken into custody at umass dartmouth or near umass dartmouth in new bedford, massachusetts. they were released that night for lack of evidence. then they were detained the next

day on the visa violations, two of them were, not the third person. again, not clear whether the third person who was taken into custody on april 19th is the same third person who now is being charged with obstruction of justice. we'll get some clarity on that later this afternoon. >> i know we will. we do know the names of two of the individuals arrested today. and we also know these two students from kazakhstan went to times square with dzhokhar tsarnaev last year. and that's the picture. there were five of them. we've blurred out the faces of the other two who went to times square, but we now know three of them there, two students from kazakhstan plus dzhokhar tsarna tsarnaev. we'll take a quick break and resume special coverage right here on "cnn newsroom" right after this.

welcome back to the breaking news we're covering out of boston. three arrests today in

connection with the boston bombing investigation. two students from kazakhstan, you see them there these students together with dzhokhar tsarnaev visiting times square last year. plus a third student, a u.s. citizen we have not yet identified that third person, we do expect a court appearance before a federal judge later this afternoon in boston with more details. we know the charges so far making false statements to federal authorities, conspiracy to obstruct justice presumably meaning trying to throw away potential evidence including some backpacks discovered in the dormitory in the room where dzhokhar tsarnaev was staying at the university of massachusetts. peter bergen is our terrorism analyst, special national security analyst as well. knows a whole lot about this kind of stuff. what do you make of this latest development, peter? >> i think the fact that the boston police said there's no risk to public safety sort of speaks for itself. these people, they are serious charges lying to the feds, that's what got martha stew wart

in trouble. obstruction of justice is even more problematic. we're here on the second anniversary of bin laden's death, wolf, and it's sort of an interesting moment to reflect on what his legacy is. obviously al qaeda is in terrible shape, hasn't been able to do an attack on the united states since 9/11. but bin laden's most toxic legacy is really the ideology of bin ladenism which unfortunately does live on and seems unfortunately the tsarnaev brothers signed up for that. saying it was the wars in afghan and iraq that radicalized them and they wanted to protest. even though bid laden is dead, killing the idea is more problematic than killing the man. >> you still suspect because we don't know because this investigation is still really very much at an early stage where these individuals, these suspects, were sort of self-inspired, if you will, or if they had a direct operational involvement with any sort of al qaeda affiliate or anything

along those lines. that's what federal investigators are now trying to determine. >> it wouldn't fit, wolf, with the history of any successful or even unsec e successful bombing attacks in the united states from long before 9/11. the first trade center attack in '93, the bomb maker trained overseas. the unsuccessful times square attack in 2010, the bombers trained overseas. the unsuccessful attempt to bomb the manhattan subway in 2009 around the eighth anniversary of 9/11, the bomber trained overseas. it's a pattern that we've seen again and again it defies common sense that two bombs would go off simultaneously without a minimum of significant practice and probably overseas training. you know, it's one thing to blow up one bomb successful, it's more than twice as hard to blow up two bombs simultaneously. >> and we know they had a third bomb as well in a place discovered in the shootout a few days after the boston marathon

bombings. peter, standby, we're going to continue our special coverage here in the "cnn newsroom." the breaking news out of boston, three arrests, we're waiting for their appearance before a federal judge in boston. welcnew york state, where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs, cut middle class income taxes to the lowest rate in sixty years, and we're creating tax free zones for business startups. the new new york is working

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and our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. learn more at boost.com [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom from doing what she loves... being my mom. this is "cnn newsroom." i'm wolf blitzer reporting in washington. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we're following important breaking news out of boston.

police now say three more people have been taken into custody in the marathon -- boston marathon bombing investigation. here's the latest information. here's what we know right now. at least two of the suspects are students at the university of massachusetts dartmouth. they were classmates of the bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev. the two are from kazakhstan. they're seen here in this picture taken at times square with the 19-year-old dzhokhar tsarnaev. the third suspect is a u.s. citizen who's identity we have not yet confirmed. boston police say all three are in the custody right now of the fbi. we anticipate they will appear before a federal judge in boston within the next few hours with formal charges being read to them. susan candiotti is in boston. she's been following this story for us from the beginning. give us more information on this dramatic new development today, susan. >> hi, wolf.