Federal authorities arrested three college students today in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings, the Boston Globe reports. The BPD's official Twitter account identified them as "suspects," and added that there was no public threat. All will reportedly be charged with making false statements to investigators; two of them, identified by CBS Boston as Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, will also be charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. CBS reports that Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev are from Kazakhstan and are not US citizens; the third suspect is an American. Sources tell NBC News the three were roommates with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and allegedly assisted him in the aftermath of the bombing by removing items from their dorm. There's no evidence they had advance knowledge of the bombing. The AP earlier reported that Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev appeared via video for a visa violation hearing in immigration court in Boston today; in that hearing, Kadyrbayev's attorney said they were drawn to Tsarnaev because he also spoke Russian.

The names of these new suspects suggest they're from Chechnya, like the Tsarnaev brothers.

I still don't understand how bombing the United States will somehow convince Russia to give independence to Chechnya.

Originally posted by O.KAY I'm confused... CBS said they were charged in obstruction of justice basically getting rid of the backpack from his room after they discovered that he was a suspect... Are they talking about the bag the supposed bomb was in? if the bomb exploded in the bag how did it end up in his dorm room.

Originally posted by Honey I still don't understand how bombing the United States will somehow convince Russia to give independence to Chechnya.

It won't, that's not the idea. Everything suggests that this does not stem from nationalism but rather from religious fanaticism. They were fighting Islam, not Chechnya. It attacks on Russian soil hasn't gotten them to change their position, then there's no way that this would and they would be insane to expect it to. I don't see Russia letting go out the Chechen Repub because of the oil lines, fear of islamic extremist groups taking over, among many other things.