"MISHA" IS SUCH A SNEAKY, CRAFTY, SUBTERRANEAN EVILDOER THAT HE'S LETTING THE PRESS REVEAL HIS FULL NAME AND RESIDENCE

The wingnuts are flipping out because it's been reported that the FBI has located "Misha," the evil jihadi mastermind said by family members to have radicalized Tamerlan Tsarmaev. The wingers are just on the verge of crowing, Woo-hoo! We have the leader of the sleeper cell! Suck it, liberals! You thought the Tsarnaevs acted alone!

Except that Christian Caryl (a scholar and Foreign Policy contributing editor) tells us on the Web site of The New York Review of Books that he's spoken to "Misha," and the guy isn't living in a subterranean bunker, waiting for to go signal from Jihad Central Command. In fact, he denies any desire to see harm done to America, he's quite forthcoming about his identity, and he's apparently been quite cooperative with the authorities:

Today I was able to meet "Misha," whose real name is Mikhail Allakhverdov. Having been referred by a family in Boston that was close to the Tsarnaevs, I found Allakverdov at his home in Rhode Island, in a lower middle class neighborhood, where he lives in modest, tidy apartment with his elderly parents. He confirmed he was a convert to Islam and that he had known Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but he flatly denied any part in the bombings. "I wasn't his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this," Allakhverdov said.

A thirty-nine-year-old man of Armenian-Ukrainian descent, Allakhverdov is of medium height and has a thin, reddish-blond beard....

... He declined to describe the nature of his acquaintance with Tamerlan or the Tsarnaev family, but said he had never met the family members who are now accusing him of radicalizing Tamerlan. He also confirmed he had been interviewed by the FBI and that he has cooperated with the investigation:

I've been cooperating entirely with the FBI. I gave them my computer and my phone and everything I wanted to show I haven't done anything. And they said they are about to return them to me. And the agents who talked told me they are about to close my case.

An FBI spokesman in Boston declined to comment on an ongoing case. Allakhverdov’s statements, however, seemed to bear out recent reports that the FBI have not found any connection between “Misha” and the bomb plot.

Let's see: We now have his real name, his age, and a physical description. We know what state he lives in, and it's a state with a very small population (and he has a very distinctive name). Needless to say, it would take you about thirty seconds to find his town and street on any people-finder site. (I've already done it myself.)

Is this guy supposed to be a furtive, shadow-dwelling Enemy Within, invisible until he works his terrorist evil on America? If so, he's kind of not getting the point.

Look, the Tsarnaevs may have had ties to other plotters -- though that's seeming less and less likely. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has reportedly claimed inspiration from the U.S. born Anwar al-Awlaki -- who, of course, was killed by a U.S. drone. I know the right wants to be able to say that the Obama administration is allowing some terror network to go undiscovered and unpunished, but it continues to seem as if that dog won't hunt.