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.

i must say we've been hearing for quite some time that some additional arrests might be coming down the pike. and sure enough this appears to be the case. we are learning more about these charges from two sources with whom we have been regularly in touch with. here are the details. one of them is a charge about lying to investigators. the other is a conspiracy to obstruct justice. the lying part we are told according to one of our sources involves allegedly knowing about the whereabouts of the suspect or suspects of the bombing after the bombing took place. knowing them or seeing them after the bombing took place. the other charge of obstruction of justice involves allegedly disposing of items that were in a dorm room into a dumpster so allegedly getting rid of evidence that might be part of this case. more details on that, wolf. we're learning from this same source that some of the things

they got rid of included fireworks packed inside backpacks that were thrown into a dumpster. we also know because we've been telling you about this for several days now that those leads coming from both the interview with the suspect according to our sources as well as leads coming from their interviews with these students is what in part led investigators to that landfill located somewhat near the dorm where they were searching for where that dumpster had been thrown out -- pitched out. i am told that one of the things they had been looking for is a laptop, but that was not recovered. but my sources would never tell me -- or comment on what was found. so we don't know for sure whether at this point whether any fireworks were discovered or anything else for that matter, wolf. >> and the fireworks could be significant because they could be used to prepare to make the so-called pressure cooker bombs that were used at the end of the boston marathon. >> i'm glad you're pointing that out.

that's right. we have been learning that one of the ingredients that was -- is believed to have allegedly been used to put the pressure cooker bombs together involved black powder. we know according to the company that sold them a fireworks company did sell and has on tape records rather fireworks being sold to the older brother. now, authorities have said that alone wouldn't be enough fire power, but it mixed with other ingredients it could. remember, wolf, investigators still don't have any evidence they're telling us of whether those bombs were tested here in the united states. now, they're not excludeing that possibility, but they're still trying to figure that out. or did they get the bomb some place else? who made them? who gave the training to the people that put these bombs together, the bombing suspects? that's still a very active part of this investigation, wolf. but this development today indicates that this investigation is far from over. >> yeah. and three arrests today, that's

a pretty dramatic development indeed. susan, standby. pam brown is just outside that federal courthouse in boston. she's getting more information. what else are you learning, pam? >> that's right, wolf. i'm right outside the federal courthouse here. we are awaiting for these three suspects to arrive here some time today. we don't have an exact time at this point. what we can tell you right now is this morning there was some sort of immigration hearing involving two of these suspects named dias kadyrbayev and sdmamt tazhayakov, two suspects initially taken into custody on the 19th. they were taken into custody from a dorm room at umass dartmouth and the next day they were arrested on violating their student visas. these are two students from kazakhstan that know dzhokhar tsarnaev, according to sources. so they were being held on the

student visa violation charges. and after that authorities were trying to get information from these two students what they might have known about tsarnaev, if they perhaps helped him in any way with the terror attack. so authorities have been holding them for a little bit more than a week. and then after this hearing this morning we found out there were three arrests that two of the suspects are these two students from umass dartmouth. we know as susan candiotti said the third suspect arrested is a u.s. citizen. we don't know specifically about the charges for the third suspect, but we do know they all involved something that happened after the terror attack. so there is no threat to public safety according to sources. we are awaiting for the three suspects to appear before a federal judge at some point today. wolf. >> pam, standby outside the federal courthouse in boston. jake tapper is working his sources. he's getting more information as well. what else are you picking up, jake? >> well, first of all, we should just say white house press secretary james carney was just

asked about these arrests and he referred reporters to the fbi. he was asked if president obama had been briefed and he also would not confirm that but said the president had been continuously briefed on this investigation. just to give a little more -- flush out a little more about these two suspects -- the three suspects who are being charged with obstruction of justice. two of them obviously from kazakhstan, dias kadyrbayev and azamat tazhayakov, i'm sure i'm botching those names, but they're being charged with obstruction of justice because law enforcement officials believe they disposed of fireworks and a laptop at the very least belonging to dzhokhar tsarnaev. one government source tells me that what these students -- and there's a third student, an american student as well, what these students are claiming is that dzhokhar reached out to them and asked them to dispose of these items. they did not know of his involvement in the terrorist attacks. this is what they're claiming. and they did it.

the timeline according to this u.s. government official is that this request from dzhokhar tsarnaev came some time after the photograph of the suspects were released, that's about 5:15 on thursday the 18th right after the bombings, but before the tsarnaev names were publicized. that's the window that this one government u.s. official tells me in which this request was made. others have stated there was a search of a lapd fill in the last few days, according to government officials that's what law enforcement officials were looking for in the landfill, these fireworks and also this laptop. also interestingly, wolf, officials are cautioning first of all that right now there is no evidence that these individuals, these three students knew anything about the attacks taking place. they're being questioned about what they did -- they're being charged with what they did after the attack. and there is some information,

first of all, tazhayakov, one of the students, is said to have returned to kazakhstan in december. on january 3rd according to u.s. government officials, january 3rd, he was removed from the roles at umass dartmouth. he was no longer a student. and yet somehow he was so able to be admitted back into the united states when he returned from kazakhstan on january 20th. and what one u.s. government official tells me is they should not have let him back in. bells should have gone off. again, nobody's saying this young man was involved with the terrorist attacks, but another indication that there are issues when it comes to information sharing. one other item having to do with information sharing although probably not as significant has to do with the fact that all three of these students were questioned by the fbi, according to a government official, late into the night on friday the 1th. that's right after the terrorist

attacks on the morning on saturday and didn't find enough to charge them with anything. but it wasn't until the next day, saturday, that immigration and customs enforcement found out about these students and these questions, looked up the students in their database and realized two of them were not of legal status and that's when i.c.e. went in and put them in their custody. earlier today obviously those two students were taken from i.c.e. custody and given to the u.s. marshals. still some items when it comes to information sharing between the fbi and department of homeland security. and then the question about the fact that one of these students was not supposed to have been able to get back into the country because he was no longer legally a student at umass da dartmouth. as i said before the charges are about them disposing of items, fireworks and a laptop that belonged to dzhokhar that according to them he requested they dispose of and they say, no one is saying it's true, that say they did not know the significance of it. wolf. >> i guess key, would be, jake,

if they had seen the fbi video, the pictures that had been released from the end of the boston marathon and they recognized their two friends there, the tsarnaev brothers and they say, wow, we know these two guys. then if they got a phone call from the younger tsarnaev brother, dzhokhar, saying please go to my room and throw away x, y and z. if they knew that the fbi was looking for them and they then went ahead and threw away into some sort of dumpster a box or bag or whatever from that room, that's a major crime. >> well, exactly. and i think that's why the one u.s. government official shared with me the window in which this request was to have been made between the time 5:15 on thursday the 18th, between the fbi releasing photographs of the suspects and their being named early in the morning on friday april 19th. that's the window. and the question is did these three students that are accused

of disposing of this laptop and fireworks belonging to dzhokhar tsarnaev, did they know, had they seen the images? i guess we'll hear more from them. but that's one of the reasons why law enforcement is taking this so seriously is that they disposed of it, according to this government official by their own admission, after the photographs had been released. as you know, the photograph of dzhokhar was much more easily identified than the photographs of tamerlan. tamerlan who of course is the older brother who has now been killed was the less recognizable because he didn't have a beard, because he was wearing sunglasses, because his hat was being worn forward whereas dzhokhar was much more recognizable with his hat on backwards looking more like himself, wolf. >> clearly these three who were arrested today were friends with the younger -- with dzhokhar. thanks very much. let's bring in our cnn national

security analyst, juliette kayyem, former department of homeland security here in washington. this timeline, juliette, is critical, if these individuals allegedly went and threw away stuff from dzhokhar tsarnaev's room after spotting his picture broadcast all over the world after 5:15 p.m. eastern on that thursday, late thursday afternoon. and they then went ahead and threw this stuff away. that's potentially a significant crime. >> right. just picking up on what jake said, that is absolutely right. they would have had knowledge that they were assisting in essentially the cover-up or the attempt to get dzhokhar off. i have to say just hearing this and jake's reporting, you do kind of wonder what was dzhokhar's thinking at this stage? he has now been identified. he is now bringing more and more people into his scheme, if they had nothing to do with the attack beforehand. as i said earlier, the charges are only the initial charges.

so even though they are only related to a potential cover-up, the u.s. attorneys office always reserves the right to determine if they knew beforehand. and finally on these charges as a legal and operational matter, while it is relevant if they knew that dzhokhar was the guy in the picture, it is actually not even necessary. if it's during those conversations dzhokhar says to him -- them, i did something bad. throw away the duffel bag, put away the computer, that is enough. like we saw with the original charge with dzhokhar, the wmd charge as well as the charges against the three, the u.s. attorneys office will always start with the easiest, lowest, you know, get them under indictment charge. and then we may see additional ones add up as more and more evidence is found, in other words if we find out that they actually knew what dzhokhar was planning. so this is just a preliminary step and an important one.

and the overlay of the immigration criminal -- the immigration system is one that is sort of a post-9/11 construct. you have immigration judges as well as your sort of normal or the ones that we tend to know criminal judges. >> very quickly, juliette, we should be bracing in addition to these three individuals appearing before a federal judge magistrate at the boston federal courthouse around the same time some sort of document, an affidavit, would be released by the justice department by the fbi going through a timeline of why they are being charged? >> yeah. that will be what it looks like for a reason to be able to detain them and their charges. it will start to get more formal over time. so remember they're in immigration court this morning under what are seem to be to be clear violations although we're not quite sure on both of them, at least one of them clearly was

no longer involved with the school are then ratcheted up to the criminal system. so we'll see something more formal by the end of the day, at least preliminary charges. and of course as it ought to be in the same courtroom where dzhokhar -- where the u.s. attorney's office is against dzhokhar. so that's how it's going to unfold. and we also will at that stage know who the american exactly is and what the charges are against him or her. all we know now is that it's not the widow of the older brother. so this is how these things unfold. and they slowly sometimes not at a microscope at this stage they clearly knew they had something last thursday night when they had interviewed these guys for the first time. and then used the immigration system to hold them for some period of time. all you have to do is prove a violation as they're building the case in the criminal case. and so now we're going to see the real charges come out in the next couple of hours.

once again, just as far as we know related to after the fact. and related to dzhokhar and his brother seeming sort of unsophistication on what their exit strategy was, which is something i keep coming back to as we try to determine both their foreign and domestic links. whatever they thought they were doing or whatever others thought they were going to do, the exit strategy really did seem not as coordinated as the attack itself. >> good point. juliette, thanks very much. we'll get back to you. we're going to continue to follow the breaking news coverage out of boston. three arrests, three individuals, three students arrested today by the fbi. we're waiting for an appearance before a federal judge magistrate in a federal courthouse in boston. you see those two students from kazakhstan there together with dzhokhar tsarnaev. this is when they visited times square last year. we're blurring out the pictures of the other two friends who went with them to times square last year. we'll continue our coverage right after this. le --

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three more people have been arrested in connection with the boston bombing investigation. two are classmates of dzhokhar tsarnaev. a third is a u.s. citizen. earlier cnn spoke by phone with congressman peter king who is a member of the homeland security. >> -- which is part of the ongoing situation. and this basically is, i believe, going to involve three students who supposedly helped to remove evidence and that's what this is going to be about. two had been in custody on visa violations, the other is an american citizen who has been picked up. >> congressman says he is not been formally briefed yet on the latest developments but getting information through his personal contacts. let's bring in alan dershowitz, harvard university law school professor who knows a lot about what's going on.

the charges when you hear them, alan, making false statements to federal authorities, conspiracy to obstruct, these are pretty serious charges if they're proven to be accurate. >> they're very serious charges and they give the government a tremendous amount of leverage against these people to provide as much information as possible. up to now it doesn't help solve whether or not these two bombers had any help from abroad or whether this was part of a larger plot. these charges all relate to what happened after the bombing itself. now, they may have even known about the plot. that is not a crime. it's not a conspiracy to know about a bombing that's going to occur and not to say anything about it. it's a terrible, terrible thing to do and it may constitute

what's called -- of felony, which is never prosecuted. but to be a conspirator, you have to have a greater involvement than mere knowledge. but if they didn't know about it, then it only involves the cover-up, getting rid of material. and they had to know they were getting rid of material that was essential to an ongoing investigation. lying to the police and federal authorities is the easiest charge ever to prove. people don't realize that if you tell any kind of a lie to an fbi agent or any government official, any federal government official, that's a crime. people commit that crime all the time. rarely are prosecuted for it. martha stewart as we remember went to jail for that crime many, many years ago. but it can be very serious. the real question is, is the government so interested in going after them? or is the government interested in trying to squeeze them to get as much information as they can to get more involvement of what happened at the bombing itself. >> and the timeline will be

critical. because the fbi released the photographs of the two suspects around 5:15 p.m. eastern on that thursday afternoon. and if they can prove that these three suspects identified or recognized those pictures from the boston marathon, the two suspects, and then subsequently got a phone call from dzhokhar tsarnaev saying, you know, please go to my room and throw away x, y and z, that would be a pretty solid case of obstruction of justice. >> it would be a very solid case. but even if they can't prove that, there's a concept in the law called willful blindness. and if they get a call from somebody they know and say, by the way, quickly get rid of this knapsack, get rid of this, get rid of that, that might be enough even though they didn't know they were involved in the bombing because they didn't ask. they willfully blinded themselves to the knowledge that would make that a crime. i think they have a pretty solid

case even if the government can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they actually knew that these were the bombers, that he was a bomber. >> alan dershowitz, we'll get back to you. thank you very much. we're going to take a break. we're awaiting appearance before a federal judge in boston. we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed: the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ i took my son fishing every year. we had a great spot, not easy to find, but worth it. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function

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we're getting a new picture. i want to put it up on the screen and show it to you.

this is a picture of dias kadyrbayev, you see him on the left with dzhokhar tsarnaev. his pal, they're both students at the university of massachusetts dartmouth campus. we don't know when this picture was taken, but we do know that dias kadyrbayev was arrested today by federal authorities on two charges, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements to federal authorities. another student from kazakhstan, azamat tazhayakov. a third student arrested as well, the third student not identified. there you see the three plus dzhokhar tsarnaev at times square last year. they visited times square, all buddies. we're going to be getting more details from the justice department, from the prosecutors and fbi shortly. we anticipate that the three students arrested today will make an appearance before a

federal judge in boston. deborah feyerick has been working her sources for us. what else are you picking up, deb? >> well, wolf, one thing that we do know is that this young man, dias kadyrbayev, was always of interest to investigators. and there are a couple of reasons for that. he had been taken in for questions even before dzhokhar tsarnaev was captured. so he was taken in in handcuffs by fbi agents. he was clearly sort of woken up a little bit early because he was wearing just a sweatshirt and his boxer shorts. he was taken in, again, the friday before dzhokhar tsarnaev was captured. and the reason he was of interest is really because of activity that was on his facebook page. the photograph that you showed earlier, the one of them sitting there at the table together, the two friends sort of arm-in-arm, well, that was of particular interest because that photograph was removed from dias's facebook page 3:00 early friday morning. the same time that his friend there in the red was on the run.

also, there was some activity that was taking place according to an intelligence source and that is between 4:50 a.m. and 5:04 the morning that the shootout had happened and dzhokhar tsarnaev was still missing, still on the run. well, in that window of time, 4:50 a.m. to 5:04, the photograph of both of those individuals were changed on their respective facebook pages. dzhokhar's photo was changed to a black and white photograph. and dias's photograph was changed to a photograph of him wearing an ironman mask. all of those things striking investigators as curious, of particular interest. we can also tell you that there was something else about dias that never made sense. he goes to university of massachusetts dartmouth, however when you look at his facebook page, he had written down that he was attending m.i.t., the massachusetts institute of technology, and that he was

scheduled to graduate with the class of 2015. also, it listed him as being with the department of engineering. clearly that raised a red flag for investigators because there's a theory that in fact these two brothers must have had help making this device, the two devices actually worked. and so when you get an engineering student that's sort of gets on the radar, clearly there's a mass move to find out exactly why. looking at the facebook page we can tell you that he lists his hometown as the former capital of kazakhstan. and in terms of what he likes, he says that in fact his personal priority is improving the world. so that's what we know about this young man. he has been on the radar from the very beginning even before dzhokhar tsarnaev was captured. they do believe there's a possibility that he was actually speaking to his friend while he was on the run. so that clearly would be

something that would be listed in the charges when we hear what those charges will be. he is now in the custody of fbi and i.c.e. wolf. >> i'm sure we'll be getting more details in the next few hours on the specific charges that we have there. was he in fact though -- do we know for sure he was an engineering student? and did he have any connection at all with m.i.t.? or did he just make that up? >> we've reached out to m.i.t. to find out specifically if he did have any sort of connection to the school, but so far we've been unsuccessful at reaching anybody in the registration department. -- the registrar's office i should say. we're still reaching out. again, it was the fact he listed that on his facebook page that really gave a sort of urgency to get him in for questioning. remember, these guys have been in for questioning for many, many days following the capture of the tsarnaev brothers -- or the death of one and capture of the other. they've been on the radar for a long time, but now clearly

federal agents have enough to charge them with in connection with this. also, the only thing i want to mention as well with respect to this young man and that is, you know, university of massachusetts initially have said that dzhokhar tsarnaev had returned to the campus, that he went back to his dorm room. and the reason they believe that is because his swipe card was used numerous times, but the question is was he really there? or was somebody else using that swipe card? you have to ask yourself the question, wolf, you know, if he did return to the campus, then why didn't he himself get rid of that computer and the other fireworks allegedly in that dorm room? a big question still unanswered, wolf. >> an obvious answer to that last question would be that was before the fbi released his picture and the picture of his older brother. so maybe they were under the assumption they got away, nobody's going to find out who they were. they were pretty confident. apparently he was partying on the campus on that wednesday.

and then of course they released the picture at 5:15 or so on the following day, that thursday. so that might be the answer why they were pretty cocky about what was going on, all of these things are being investigated obviously right now. but the latest information, the latest details are potentially very, very significant. deborah feyerick working her sources, thanks very much. we're working our sources as well. i know we're also checking to see if we're getting some more information on these two guys from kazakhstan. these two guys who have been arrested, these two students. one of them says he's from the former capital in kazakhstan. cnn has our worldwide news gathering capabilities. we're checking out what's going on in kazakhstan even as we speak right now. our special coverage continues right after this. aces. to prove it, we set up our call center right here... [ chirp ] all good? [ chirp ] getty up.

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we want to welcome back our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we're following important breaking news in the boston marathon bombing investigation. police in boston now say three more suspects are in the custody of the fbi.

at least two of them are students of the university of massachusetts dartmouth. they were classmates of the bombing suspect, dzhokhar tsarnaev. the two were from kazakhstan. and they're seen in this picture taken at times square in new york city with the 19-year-old dzhokhar last year. the third suspect we're told is a u.s. citizen who's identity we have not yet confirmed. police in boston say all three are in the custody, as i said, of the fbi. and we're hearing from law enforcement sources that they will face charges of making false statements to investigators, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. let's get some perspective now from cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes, he's a former fbi assistant director. give us a sense, tom, of the significance of this break in this investigation and these three arrests. >> wolf, it shows that the brothers probably got help from several of their friends after the fact, is what it shows. obviously it leads to suspicion

that they may have helped them before or assisted with the entire plot of the bombing. we don't know that yet. the authorities may know that, but have not flushed all the evidence out that they want to in that. so in this case they've got plenty of evidence that after the fact they helped the brothers and that they gave false statements to the fbi when they were interviewed, which in official investigation you don't have to talk, but if you do it has to be the truth. you can't lie. and apparently that's the basis of one of the charges. and then the fact that they may have done it together would indicate conspiracy to obstruct justice or make false statements. >> those are very serious charges indeed. do we know, tom, and i know you're well-sourced, do we know that massive search that we saw of federal authorities, local officials, going through that landfill looking for evidence, if you will, did they actually come up with anything? did they find anything, or was it a waste of time?

>> no, i don't think it was a waste of time. but the way they worded the results of that search were that they were looking for a laptop and other material and didn't find the laptop. so that tells you that possibly they found other material there that could be linked to the brothers either to the explosive devices or other items that may have come from that apartment. so, you know, the statements that were made officially after that search were kind of strictly worded. that there could have been items found there that we're not told about, that were not named at the time. >> if in fact these three suspects or one of them, two of them, the ones who are arrested today, if before all of us knew the names of the two tsarnaev brothers before that became public information, if there's evidence that they started deleting pictures of themselves together with dzhokhar, for example, in the middle of the night between the 18th and the

19th, what would that say to you about this investigation? >> well, certainly would be an indicator that they have some reason to be worried about who's going to look at their facebook pages and maybe report that to the authorities. but i think in the modern era here, you know, the standard procedure in these kind of investigations are to locate every e-mail you can find from the subjects, every cell phone call, every financial transaction, credit card records. now we have the next level of investigation in the last few years which includes social media. and i think that in many cases it helps the authorities put together a picture of who they were in contact with, who their friends are literally, and can enable the authorities to go back in time and see what was the kind of communications that they were putting out to describe themselves or the kinds of photos that they were using or other information to indicate their level of relationships

with other people. and i might add in this case that the investigation going back to the beginning with the suspicion on the brothers from kazakhstan, the fbi does have an office in kazakhstan. so it would also involve trying to get the assistance of the authorities in kazakhstan of what they know about these two individuals, the two students that were here. >> kazakhstan being a former republic of the soviet union. once the soviet union broke up back at the end of 1991, kazakhstan became an independent country. and i've been to kazakhstan, what's the nature of the cooperation on intelligence law enforcement? you used to be in charge of the fbi working with a lot of these foreign countries, what's the nature of the relationship between the kazakhstan authorities and the fbi? >> well, i think it's a pretty positive relationship because of having the office there -- i'm sorry, in forming the

relationships. but there hasn't always been a lot of interaction where we had to worry about people coming to the u.s. from that country and doing something. here you have a couple students that come here, we don't know if there's an indication yet that they came here to do bad things. we think they came here to be students and have a career or get the education that they wanted. and somewhere along the line, you know, hooked up with the brothers -- the tsarnaev brothers, and, you know, led into this possible helping them after the fact. i think what also emerges is that the brothers had a charismatic hold over so many people that they encountered. and so many people trying to protect them. you had the one friend of theirs interviewed the day of the arrest saying, yes, i saw the fbi photographs last night on the media and on the internet. and, yes, i recognized especially the younger brother. and when asked did you notify

the authorities, no, i didn't want to throw them under the bus. well, what kind of loyalty is that? we have people at that point have been identified as murd murdere murderers, terrorists and friends saying i don't want to throw them under the bus. so how do they get these people -- or any people to be so loyal to them just based on friendship or association in school or in the dormitory or wherever those relationships were formed. >> tom fuentes, we're going to continue this investigation, continue our conversation. standby, we're following the breaking news out of boston. three arrests including two students from kazakhstan. also, a u.s. citizen. there you see those two students from kazakhstan last year at times square with dzhokhar tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspect in the boston bombing attack. we'll take a quick break. more of our special coverage right after this. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused.

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welcome back to our continuing coverage. we're following the latest developments out of boston. three arrests today. the fbi now has three individuals under arrest. they will be formally charged we're told later today in a federal courthouse in boston. two of them students from kazakhstan. you see them right there together with dzhokhar tsarnaev. they visited times square last year tazhayakov and kadyrbayev are students from kazakhstan at

university of massachusetts dartmouth campus. they've been picked up together with a u.s. citizen whose identity we have not yet confirmed. we're watching what's going on closely. formally they will be charged with making false statements to federal authorities as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice. the suggestion being that they got a phone call -- this is the suggestion from dzhokhar tsarnaev asking them to remove some items from his room, which they did. and it's unclear the timeline. was this done -- did they know that dzhokhar tsarnaev was being searched for as a result of the fbi investigation into the boston marathon bombing. these are very, very serious charges. we anticipate that the justice department will formally release an affidavit. it will probably be out there very soon with a tick tock, a timeline of what exactly happened, why they want these three individuals, two students

from kazakhstan plus a u.s. citizen, to be arrested. these are live pictures we're getting in from our affiliate whdh in boston. this is the federal courthouse there. we anticipate these three individuals will be showing up fairly soon. much more on that coming up. we're continuing the breaking news. also, a cab driver says he was assaulted by a passenger who accused him of being a terrorist just because he's muslim. get this, the same cabbie is a u.s. army reservist. we'll hear his story and more when we come back. estful sleep, and lunesta eszopiclone can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. do not take lunesta if you are allergic to anything in it. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported. lunesta should not be taken together with alcohol.

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individual arrested, a u.s. citizen of whom we have not yet identified but pretty soon all of us will know the identity of the third person as well, conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements to federal authorities, these are the two charges we have heard about so far. we'll get more information, get back to you on that. once again, 3:30 p.m. eastern, they will be showing up at the federal courthouse in boston. there is another story i want to get to this hour, it involves a taxi driver right here in the washington, d.c. area who says he was physically attacked by a customer who looped him in with the boston marathon bombers. muhammad salin is a muslim, also a united states army reservist who served in the war in iraq. he says a man got in his cab last friday, accused him of being a terrorist, threatened to kill him, then broke his jaw. he recorded some of it on his cell phone video camera, watch this.

>> will you denounce it? will you say it was bad? no, you won't. >> sir, whatever you say, it's recording. >> i don't give a flying [ bleep ]. >> i'm going to call 911 right now. >> do you think it was right for the terrorists to fly planes into the united states. >> i'm going to call you to the police, okay. whatever you're saying is recording -- now you're punching me? you're punching me? >> do you think it was proper for the united states -- >> you, you, now you're punching me, right? you're punching me, right? why are you punching me? >> joining us now is muhammad salin and his attorney. thank you for coming in. muhammad, how are you doing, how badly were you hurt in this

exchange? >> really get bad hurt. i got a fracture in my jaw, head injury. and also my right ear, really get hurt. so that was really scary. but thank god i'm alive. >> thank god you're alive. >> what happened was -- >> go ahead, pick up the story. >> yeah, and the video cuts off after he gets hit once, but what the video doesn't show is when mohamed goes to call 911, the assailant re-enters the vehicle, casts additional aspersions on all billion plus muslims of the world, says that mohamed is cousins to the boston bomber and hits him a couple more times. and this followed several minutes of really some of the ugliest anti-muslim comments

that one can imagine. mohamed at one point asked mr. dalburg whether or not he had prejudice and mr. dalburg's response was yes, in fact, he was. and, indeed, muslim as a general matter are responsible for acts of violence that the extreme few commit. and what mohamed's situation really highlights is that mohamed is an army reservist who served in iraq and defended his country. and what his incident highlights is that the acts of a few cannot be generalized to over a billion practicing muslims in the world. and maybe mr. dalburg would have revised the statements had he known the service that mr. salim provided, but what we see in documented video is an example of anti-muslim prejudice that violates the law and has no place in our country.

>> we did get a statement from the individual, the lawyer for the individual, who was involved in this altercation with mohamed. client became rather emotional as the discussion turned to jihad and 9/11 and especially on the subject of jihadists who want to harm him. mohamed, what would you say to this individual now if he's watching? >> if he's watching, i'm really saying upon his face, sir, i'm not a terrorist, i'm a u.s. citizen, i'm u.s. army reserve. i served the country and i sacrificed my life. you don't know me. you don't know my background. also i ask you, do you know me? and you say, i don't give a f. that's what you respond. so i sacrifice for this country, i know about my life, and, i,

myself, i was fighting terrorists and i'm against violence. i'm not terrorist. i'm not jihadist. i'm american like you. a lot of muslimists who serve the country and i know a lot of muslims. more than 200, 300 muslims who serve the country. and the war on terrorism, war on iraq. so, sir, you know, individuals are responsible. there are 1.5 billion muslims around the world. you have to apologize me and 1.5 billion muslims. >> mohamed, thanks for your service to the united states. gadir, thanks for coming in as well. we'll continue to pursue this story. we appreciate it very much. that's it for me this hour. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern. special edition of "the situation room," we're watching the breaking news out of boston, three arrests. brooke baldwin will have much more of our breaking news

coverage from boston right after this. c

i'm brooke baldwin live here in boston. i want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. welcome to cnn's special coverage of the breaking developments in the boston marathon terror attack. we begin with three more people now in custody of the fbi, arrested today in this boston bombing case. they are due in federal court any minute. we have cameras there. we will show that to you live. here's what we know as