Perplexing discrepancy

"Feds Accused of Harassing “Boston Bomber” Friends, and Friends of Friends" (quite amazing):

"In the six months since the Boston Marathon bombing, the FBI has by all appearances been relentlessly intimidating, punishing, deporting and, in one case, shooting to death, persons connected, sometimes only tangentially, with the alleged bombers."

and:

"In the case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, we’ve noticed a perplexing discrepancy. While the FBI claims that it began interviewing the Tsarnaevs in response to a request from the Russians, the New York Times has cited a meeting that would predate the Russian request:

“In January 2011, two counterterrorism agents from the bureau’s Boston field office interviewed Tamerlan and family members, a senior law enforcement official said.”

Yet, in an article that appeared three days later, the same authors reported that,

“The first Russian request came in March of 2011 through the F.B.I.’s office in the United States Embassy in Moscow.”

If these dates are correct, then the FBI was talking to Tamerlan before the Russians asked them to. Why? (An email from WhoWhatWhy to Eric Schmitt, the Times’s lead reporter on the two articles, remains unanswered.)"

See also the comment by public_servant_watch.