By Kevin Monahan, Producer, NBC News

GREEN BANK, W.Va. – Every week, Chuck Niday patrols Green Bank, W.Va., in a vehicle that looks a bit like something out of the movie “Mad Max,” aiming to protect the largest steerable radio telescope in the world.

He searches for sources of interference, which can come from something as simple as a spark plug or an electric fence. And when Niday runs across illegal wireless signals or other electronics, he asks residents to desist.

“We just go in and ask them to turn it off, and leave it off,” he said. “People are usually pretty cooperative.”

If they don’t, he can send a report to the Federal Communications Commission. In 1958, the FCC created a 13,000-square-mile quiet zone to shield radio telescopes in Green Bank and Sugar Grove, W.Va., from harmful man-made interference, allowing scientists to study sounds emanating from galaxies all around the universe. 

Cellphones, Wi-Fi, radio, even certain electronics are all regulated. And there’s not a single cellphone tower to be found for miles. The entire U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone straddles the border between Virginia and West Virginia.

Bob Sheets has spent his entire life living in the shadow of the giant telescope -- literally. It’s visible from nearly every window of his home, and looms over his field of cows.

A retired English teacher from the area, Sheets is quite aware that people might consider him “road kill on the technology highway,” as he puts it, but says the National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a great neighbor. He doesn’t think outsiders mind much either.

“Most people that come to visit are happy to turn their cellphone off and get away from it all for a while. It seems to reduce their anxiety,” he said.

The remote town of Green Bank sits smack in the middle of the Allegheny Mountain Range, situated in a valley in the mountains that is naturally protected from many of the radio signals flying around. 

It’s the closest community to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which runs the Green Bank Telescope. One-and-a-half times taller than the Statue of Liberty, the radio telescope listens into space. 

Telescope director Karen O’Neil explained: “We listen to galaxies, not just our own, and by doing so, try to understand how these galaxies were formed.”

Michael Holstine, operations manager, says it takes on some of the biggest questions of our time -- and the quiet zone is the perfect place to do it.

“We‘ve been able to peer back to just after the Big Bang, 13.9 billion to 14 billion years ago,” he said. “We need quiet to gather all the signals that are being supplied to us by the universe. Green Bank is just about the quietest place in the country.”

But what about the seemingly draconian restrictions it puts on the local residents here?

At Green Bank Elementary Middle School, which is in direct line-of-sight of the telescope, students actually talk to each other instead of texting.

It doesn’t mean however, that some teenagers wouldn’t prefer to have a cellphone to help beef up their social lives.

“If you have a cellphone with you all the time, everybody can get a hold of you,” said Kourtney Cohenour, 14, who recently moved to Green Bank with her family. “You don’t need to worry about people trying to find you.”

They still have payphones here in Green Bank -- and people seem to use them. Some of the residents even get a kick out of those who still rely on cellphones.

“I saw a lady one time at a local gas station here,” Sheets said with a smile. “She was holding it high above her head to try and get a signal and then she took it over and she waved it around the pay phone.”

At the main general store in town, owner Bob Earvine and his son, Donnie, don’t seem to mind the restrictions.

Donnie Earvine claims to miss using his cellphone when he leaves town and comes back. As for his father, not so much.

“I don’t miss a cellphone one bit,” said Bob Earvine. “If the observatory wasn’t here, I’m not sure we would be. You can see how little other employment there is around here. It’s a small price to pay.”

Brian Farkas / AP file

The Robert C. Byrd Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory rises above the rural Pocahontas County, W.Va., countryside on Oct. 26, 2008. The telescope is the world's largest steerable radio telescope.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 6:20 PM EDT

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 5:01 PM EDT

As the White House faces a trio of burgeoning controversies that have put the administration and agencies throughout Washington on the defensive, Attorney General General Eric Holder reiterated before a House panel Wednesday that he was not involved in the Justice Department's decision to seize two months of phone records from Associated Press journalists as a part of a leak probe.

LIVESTREAM: House Judiciary Committee hearing

The Justice Department has also opened an investigation into revelations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status for additional scrutiny. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder said that prosecutors are looking at several different statutes in the investigation of those actions. 

He said those potential violations could include an IRS statute that requires employees to do their jobs without favoritism, civil rights laws, the Hatch Act that restricts a federal employee's political activities, or the law against making false statements to investigators.

“The facts will take us wherever they take us,” he added, promising a nationwide investigation. 

Asked about the leak probe, Holder confirmed that Deputy Attorney General James Cole authorized the subpoenas on AP reporters' phone records after Holder recused himself from the matter.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

Attorney General Eric Holder is sworn in during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill May 15, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Holder first announced Tuesday that he had recused himself from the AP leak probe because he had previously been questioned by the FBI about the intelligence breach.

He added Wednesday that he also turned over his own phone records as a part of that questioning. 

He told the committee that he recused himself because he was one of the “relatively limited number of people” who had first-hand knowledge of the leaked information – and also because he had more regular communication with reporters than Cole.

“I was a possessor of the information that was ultimately leaked,” he added. “And the question then is, who of those people who possessed that information – which was a relatively limited number of people  within the Justice Department – who of those people actually spoke in an inappropriate way to the Associated Press,” he added.

In response to questions, he said that he did not know the date of his recusal for certain and that there was not a written record of it.  He also said that the White House would not have been informed of the recusal. 

Holder has been widely criticized by Republicans for DOJ's handling of the matter, scrutiny Holder noted at the beginning of his remarks.

"The head of the [Republican National Committee] called for my resignation in spite of the fact that I was not the person who was involved in that decision," he said.

The routine Justice Department oversight hearing became a hot ticket after two scandals – the DOJ probe and the revelations about the IRS – erupted since the end of last week. The Obama administration also continues to be dogged by lingering questions over its administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.

In opening remarks he was set to deliver before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder says the Justice Department “has taken critical steps to prevent and combat violent crime, to confront national security threats, to ensure the civil rights of everyone in this country, and to safeguard the most vulnerable members of our society.”

NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report. 

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 1:07 PM EDT

Evoking the spy games of the Cold War, Russia said Tuesday that it had detained an American diplomat who was carrying cash, two wigs and technical equipment and was trying to recruit a Russian intelligence official to work for the CIA.

Russia ordered the expulsion of the American diplomat, whom it identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle, third secretary of the political division of the U.S. Embassy. The State Department said only that an officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had been detained and released.

American officials said they did not expect a rift in U.S.-Russian relations. U.S. officials are trying to improve those relations, and to persuade Russia to help resolve a civil war in Syria.

FSB via AP

Wigs and spy gadgets that the Russian Federal Security Service says were carried by American diplomat Ryan Fogle.

Russia used stronger language, calling the matter provocative and in the spirit of the Cold War.

A statement by the Russian Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, said that Fogle was taken to the service’s headquarters and then to the U.S. embassy after his arrest Monday night.

The security service, known as the FSB, released to Russian media photographs of the American’s arrest and what it said were items he had with him, including the wigs, a torch, a compass and a wad of 500-euro notes, each worth $650.

Russian television also displayed a letter it said was found on Fogle, printed in Russian and addressed “Dear friend.” The letter offered a $100,000 payment as “an advance from someone who has been highly impressed by your professionalism, and who would highly value your cooperation in the future.”

The statement from the security service said that the U.S. had “repeatedly attempted to recruit employees of Russian law enforcement bodies and special departments” recently.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, was participating in a question-and-answer session on Twitter when the detention was announced. He was summoned to Russia’s foreign ministry, The Associated Press reported.

Experts expressed surprise at the old-school nature of the alleged espionage, but they noted that intelligence-gathering had not stopped just because the Cold War ended more than two decades ago.

FSB via AP

In this photo provided by Russian Federal Security Service, a man claimed by the service to be Ryan Fogle is seen at the service's offices in Moscow.

“If anything, it has increased,” said James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the British think tank Chatham House. “The methods have changed — or so we thought — because it’s more about industrial espionage and corruption these days.”

Besides the diplomacy over Syria, there have been questions about whether Russia gave the United States enough information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the attack on the Boston Marathon.

Russian officials asked the U.S. for more information about Tsarnaev, who was born in what is now Russia and traveled to Russia early last year. Russia suspected that Tsarnaev was becoming radicalized, American officials have said.

The FBI interviewed him in 2011 and turned up nothing, and when the FBI asked Russia twice for more information about its concern, Russia failed to respond, the American officials said. Tsarnaev was killed April 19 in a shootout with police.

President Barack Obama later said Russia had cooperated since the attack but noted: “Old habits die hard. There are still suspicions sometimes between our intelligence and law enforcement agencies that date back 10, 20, 30 years, back to the Cold War.”

The incident would not be the only intelligence blunder in Russia. Britain admitted bugging a Moscow park in 2006 by disguising a recording device as a big rock. The FSB saw a British diplomat picking it up and walking away with it.

Related: 

Full Russia coverage from NBC News

Editor’s note: This story includes a correction.

This story was originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 7:59 PM EDT

DNA tests have confirmed that Ariel Castro, the suspect in the kidnapping and decade-long imprisonment of three women in Cleveland, is the father of a 6-year-old girl born to one of the women in captivity, the Ohio attorney general said Friday.

Attorney General Mike DeWine also said that Castro’s DNA did not match other unsolved Ohio cases. He said that the FBI is still checking Castro’s DNA against unsolved cases elsewhere in the country.

Castro, 52, is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape in the abductions of the three women and is being held on $8 million bond. They were freed Monday night when one of them, Amanda Berry, broke through a door and screamed for help.

Berry is the mother of the 6-year-old, who was also rescued from the house, authorities have said.

The baby was delivered in a kiddie pool by another captive, Michelle Knight, according to a Cleveland police report. Knight told investigators that Castro threatened to kill her if the baby died, the report said.

Knight also told investigators that Castro impregnated her at least five times, and starved her and pummeled her in the stomach to force her to miscarry, the police report said.

A DNA match to Castro would confirm what Berry told police, according to the police account. It also said that Castro would take the child out with him, and made sure the girl did not know Knight’s or DeJesus’ real name in case she said them in public.

An Ohio prosecutor pledged Thursday to pursue charges of aggravated murder against Castro for any pregnancies that he terminated.

Knight remains in a Cleveland hospital. The hospital said Friday that she is in good spirits, is grateful for an outpouring of flowers and gifts and is asking for privacy.

Berry and another captive, Gina DeJesus, returned home to their families earlier this week.

This story was originally published on Fri May 10, 2013 10:57 AM EDT

The Cleveland man charged with holding three women captive for a decade impregnated one of them five times and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried, police said Wednesday in a chilling report on the kidnappings.

The man forced one of his captives, Michelle Knight, to deliver the baby of another captive, Amanda Berry, in a kiddie pool, and threatened to kill Knight if the baby died, police said.

Police made the revelations in a report that laid out a nightmarish captivity, including starvation and imprisonment in the basement. One official said the women apparently were allowed outside the house only twice, and briefly, in the years after they were captured.

The Cleveland city prosecutor charged the man, Ariel Castro, with four counts of kidnapping — one for each of the three women and one for a baby that was born to Berry six years ago. Castro was also charged with three counts of rape for each of the adult women.

But authorities filed no charges against two of Castro’s brothers who were arrested Monday night, after Berry escaped the house with the help of a neighbor and the other two women were freed.

Authorities said they had no evidence that the two brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were involved in the kidnappings.

The three captives — Berry, Knight and Gina DeJesus — were allowed only in the backyard when they were let outdoors at all, and were forced to wear wigs and sunglasses when they left the house, the report said.

The escape came on Monday, when Castro went to McDonald’s and left a “big inside door” unlocked, the report said. That was when Berry broke through a locked storm door, afraid to open it further because she worried that Castro was testing her, the report said. Berry made it out and called 911.

“From what we know, their only opportunity to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped,” said Ed Tomba, the deputy Cleveland police chief.

All three women told police that Castro initially chained them in the basement, the report said, but he ultimately let them live on the second floor of the home, a shabby, two-story dwelling on Cleveland’s West Side.

The women were not in the same room but did know the others were there, Tomba said.

“As far as what the circumstances were inside that home, and the control he may have had over those girls, we don’t know that yet,” he said.

According to the report, Knight told investigators that she carried Castro’s baby “at least” five times, and that when he found out, he “would make her abort the baby” — starving her for two weeks and repeatedly punching her in the stomach until she miscarried.

When Berry’s baby was born, Knight put her mouth to the baby’s to keep it alive — and keep herself alive because Castro had threatened to kill her, the report said.

Berry told investigators that none of the women had seen a doctor during their captivity, the report said.

One police source close to the investigation cautioned earlier in the day that it was hard to be sure the women’s memories were completely accurate after such a long time in captivity.

John Gress / Reuters

Gina DeJesus arrives at her home in Cleveland.

Earlier Wednesday, DeJesus and Berry returned home to their families, both greeted by cheering crowds and huge displays of balloons, ribbons, teddy bears and encouraging signs. DeJesus gave a thumbs up.

“She was happy,” said her aunt, Sandra Ruiz. “She looked at the house and wanted a tour.”

Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital and was getting mental health treatment, her mother said.

Cleveland authorities said that a search of the Castro house had revealed no human remains. FBI agents returned to the house Wednesday and also searched a house two doors down that appeared to be abandoned.

Authorities said they did not suspect Castro had kidnapped anyone else. They said they had questioned Castro about the disappearance of a fourth Cleveland woman, Ashley Summers.

Castro was due in court Thursday morning for arraignment. The two brothers are also due in court Thursday, but on unrelated misdemeanor charges, authorities said.

“There is no evidence that these two individuals had any involvement in the commission of the crimes committed against Michelle, Gina, Amanda and the minor child,” said Victor Perez, the city prosecutor.

The three women were reported missing in Cleveland months apart: Knight in August 2002 after losing custody of her son, Berry in April 2003 after finishing her part-time shift at a Burger King, and DeJesus in April 2004 while walking home from middle school.

The police report suggests Castro used the same tactic to capture each of them: He offered them a ride. In Berry’s case, he told her he had a son who also worked at Burger King.

When Berry made her break for freedom years later, kicking the door and screaming, a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, helped free her. In her 911 call, Berry pleaded with the dispatcher to send help: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”

When help came, two police officers crawled through a broken panel of the storm door and kicked it open to allow other officers in, the report said.

Two officers went upstairs, and the other two women threw themselves into the officers’ arms, it said.

Berry is now 27, DeJesus 23 and Knight 32.

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland.

Launch slideshow

McGrath said that the house had come to the attention of police only twice — in 2000, when Ariel Castro called about a fight on the street, and in 2004, when Castro, a school bus driver, had left behind one of his passengers.

The chief’s account conflicts with that of at least one neighbor, Israel Lugo, who told MSNBC on Tuesday that he called the police in 2011 after his sister spotted a woman with a baby in the home, banging on the window “like she wants to get out.”

McGrath said that his department would have a record of such a call and that there was none. He said that he was “absolutely confident” that his officers did not miss a chance to free the three women.

Ariel Castro, 52, was accused in 2005 of attacking his former wife, The Plain Dealer newspaper reported. Her lawyer at the time said that although the ex-wife had custody of their children, Castro “frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother,’’ the newspaper reported.

Khalid Samad, a community organizer, told NBC News that Castro had accompanied him on searches for the missing women.

First lady Michelle Obama told NBC News that the kidnappings were “probably a parent’s worst nightmare.”

“These families are going to have to wrap their arms around these young women and make sure that they get all the help and support they need so that they will go on and lead healthy, normal lives,” she told TODAY. “We’re just grateful that they’re safe.”

Richard Esposito and Jeff Black of NBC News contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Wed May 8, 2013 8:54 AM EDT

Jane Flavell Collins / AP

In a courtroom sketch, Robel Phillipos appears before a federal magistrate last week. Phillipos and two other college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and charged with removing a backpack containing hollowed-out fireworks from Tsarnaev's dorm room.

A friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev charged with lying to federal investigators after the Boston Marathon bombings was placed on house arrest Monday after posting $100,000 bail.

The friend, Robel Phillipos, was ordered released into the custody of his mother. He will have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and submit to drug testing. He will not be allowed to leave home except for court appearances and 911 emergencies.

Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Phillipos had filed a joint motion earlier in the day encouraging a judge to put him on house arrest after determining that he was not a flight risk.

Lawyers for Phillipos, 19, had said over the weekend that their client was “frightened and confused” when he was questioned by investigators days after the attack, and argued that he had nothing to do with the attack itself.

Phillipos is one of three friends of Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, who were arrested last week after they were questioned about the removal of a backpack and fireworks from Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the blasts.

Phillipos spoke only once during his hearing Monday. When the judge asked whether he understood the terms of his release, he answered, “Yes.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler set his next hearing for May 17.

Family or friends of Phillipos — it was not clear which — said they would put up real estate to meet the $100,000 bond.

Outside court, one of Phillipos’ lawyers, Susan Church, emphasized that he is not charged with removing evidence. Two Kazakh students, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, are charged with that crime.

“Just like all Americans and all people from Boston, Robel is grieving at the tragedy and the lives lost forever,” she said.

All three men knew Tsarnaev from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. In the court papers, lawyers described Phillipos as mild-mannered and peaceful, without a criminal record and with deep ties to his family, his church and the community in Cambridge, Mass.

The lawyers argued that Phillipos was questioned without a lawyer and made himself available to federal authorities at all times. The charge of lying has ruined what was a bright future, they said.

“This case is about a frightened and confused 19-year-old who was subjected to intense questioning and interrogation, without the benefit of counsel, and in the context of one of the worst attacks against the nation,” the lawyers wrote.

The papers seek to distance Phillipos from the two Kazakhs and from Tsarnaev. Phillipos had taken a leave of absence for the spring semester and had not been in touch with the other three for more than two months, the lawyers argued.

It was only by “sheer coincidence and bad luck,” the lawyers wrote, that Phillipos was invited to attend a campus seminar on April 18, the day the backpack and fireworks were removed from Tsarnaev’s dorm room.

The lawyers also submitted 17 letters from people who know Phillipos, including his mother, attesting to his character. One was from a community soccer coach who said Phillipos was “very respectful” and excelled despite being the smallest player.

His mother, Genet Bekele, wrote that the family, which is of Ethiopian descent, looks forward to the marathon each year and cheers, on the sidelines or watching on television, as Ethiopians cross the finish line.

After the bombings, “We mourned for those who lost their lives and prayed for the injured,” she wrote. “My son wants nothing more than the opportunity to clear his name.”

Tsarnaev, 19, who is in a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and could face the death penalty. He was wounded in a firefight with police before he was captured April 19.

His brother, Tamerlan, was killed in the firefight. A funeral parlor in Worcester, Mass., accepted the body, but as of Sunday the Tsarnaev family had not found a cemetery willing to bury him.

Three people were killed and more than 200 injured when two bombs went off April 15 near the marathon finish line. Twelve people remained in Boston hospitals Sunday.

The One Fund Boston, which has raised more than $28 million for victims, plans to hold a town hall meeting in Boston on Monday to discuss plans for how the money will be distributed.

This story was originally published on Mon May 6, 2013 9:45 AM EDT

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images file

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has ordered a broad review of how the U.S. handled information before the Boston Marathon bombing.

The nation's top intelligence official has ordered a review of the Boston Marathon bombing case amid questions about whether the U.S. should have known one of the suspects posed a threat.

Retired Gen. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has asked the inspector general who oversees the intelligence community to take a broad look at various agencies' handling of information they received long before the bombing.

“Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing, but this is hard stuff,'' President Obama said at a Tuesday news conference.

In 2011, Russia asked the U.S. to check into Tamerlan Tsarnaev because they suspected he was becoming radicalized. The FBI interviewed him but found no sign of terrorist activity.

His name and the name of his mother were put into intelligence databases that track possible terrorist ties, and U.S. agents were "pinged" when Tsarnaev flew last year to Russia, a trip that included time in the militant outpost of Dagestan.

Less than a year after he returned to the U.S., the 26-year-old ethnic Chechen and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarneav, planted two bombs near the finish line of the April 15 marathon, killing three and wounding more than 200 more people, authorities said.

Since then, there's been debate about whether Russia gave the U.S. enough information about Tsarnaev and whether the FBI and CIA should have been more thorough in vetting Tsarnaev.

“It’s not as if the FBI did nothing,” Obama said. “They not only investigated the older brother, they interviewed him.”Obama said that while there were “no signs” of terrorist tendencies then, investigators want to know if something happened later to trigger Tsarnaev’s radicalization and what the U.S. can do to detect such shifts in the future.

He said Russia has been “very cooperative” since the attack, but also noted that “old habits die hard” and that some suspicion between between the two countries’ intelligence agencies, dating back decades, has survived.

He portrayed the review as an effort to improve intelligence, not find fault with anyone.

“What Director Clapper is doing is standard procedure around here,” Obama said.

Still, one U.S. counter-terrorism official said some in the intelligence community are "furious" about Clapper's probe, because it suggests that mistakes were made.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police. His brother was arrested after a manhunt that shut down Boston for a day and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

Related:

• Adding up the financial costs of the Boston bombings
• Could Boston bombing suspect avoid the death penalty?

Cambridge Police Dept.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev is seen in a booking photo from a 2009 arrest in Cambridge, Mass.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:54 AM EDT

The hospitalized Boston Marathon bombing suspect charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction has told investigators that he and his brother were motivated by religion but were not in contact with overseas terrorists or groups, officials said.

Several officials familiar with the initial interrogation of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described his behavior during questioning as cooperative.

A senior government official said Tsarnaev has told investigators —  by writing some answers down, and by nodding yes or shaking his head no to others — that he and his brother were not in touch with any overseas terrorists or groups.

Tsarnaev, who has injuries to his tongue preventing him from speaking properly, also indicated that he and his brother conceived the bombing attack on their own, and were motivated by religious fervor. 

They got their instructions on how to make bombs from the Internet, he said, according to these officials.

Earlier on Monday, the White House said he will be tried in a civilian court.

FBI Photo

Dzokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing.

“He will not be treated as an enemy combatant. We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

“Under U.S. law, United States citizens cannot be tried in military commissions. And it is important to remember that since 9/11 we have used the federal court system to convict and incarcerate hundreds of terrorists.”

Tsarnaev, 19, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chechen origin, made his initial court appearance at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical  Center, where he was listed in serious condition.

He was advised of his rights and charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S. and one count of malicious destruction of property with an explosive device.

He was assigned three federal public defenders. The charges could carry the death penalty.

The suspect agreed to "voluntary detention," but declined to answer questions about bail, according to a court record. A probable cause hearing was set for May 30.

"Today's charges bring a successful end to a tragic week for the city of Boston and for our country," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

"We will hold those who are responsible for these heinous acts accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

A criminal complaint laid out some of the evidence against Tsarnaev, who was arrested Friday after a daylong manhunt, and his brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a firefight with police.

A black jacket and white hat, matching the ones worn by "Suspect No. 2" in surveillance video, were found in the younger brother's dorm room, along with green strands of fuse like those used in the marathon explosives that killed three and wounded more than 170.

The video also captured the suspect making a cellphone call seconds before the first bomb exploded on the east end of Boylston St. during last Monday's race, and his utter calm in the face of spreading panic, the complaint said. The footage showed him hurrying away from his knapsack just 10 seconds before a blast erupted where he left it.

Tsarnaev was brought to the hospital with gunshot wounds to the head, neck, leg and hand. He had been communicating with investigators in writing because he couldn't speak, federal officials told NBC News. 

The FBI has not officially revealed a motive for the attack last Monday that killed three people -- one of whom, Krystle Campbell, was laid to rest in Medford on Monday. Investigators are still probing whether the brothers received assistance from others, officials said.

7 biggest unanswered questions in Boston bombing

The feds have asked to speak with Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, who converted to Islam after she met her future husband at a nightclub. She dropped out of college, got married and had a baby three years ago.

William Farrington / Polaris

The FBI would like to speak to Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, seen here leaving the Cambridge house where she lived with husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev, her lawyer says.

Her lawyer, Amato DeLuca, told The Associated Press he was trying to work out the details of an interview.

His client, he said, worked up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tamerlan watched their daughter. He said she didn't have any suspicions he might be plotting something.

He said she last saw her husband at home on Thursday morning, hours before he and his younger brother allegedly executed a campus police officer, pulled off the carjacking, and led police on a wild bomb-tossing chase that ended in a 200-bullet gun battle.

The carjacking victim told police his abductor asked if he'd heard of the marathon bombing and then said "I did that." 

The man, who has asked that his identity not be revealed, told NBC News that he managed to escape and called his captors “brutal and cautious.”

The victim told police the two men said they "would not kill him because he wasn’t American," according to a police report obtained by NBC News.

Boston's top police official said Monday that while there are many unanswered questions, the city can rest easy.

"We're satisfied the two main actors, the people that were committing the damage out there, have been either captured or killed," Police Commissioner Ed Davis said on TODAY.

"There is still an open question as to exactly what happened in this investigation," he said. "We can't say with 100 percent certainty...anything, actually, at this point."

Among the mysteries Tsarnaev could solve is what his brother did when he traveled to Russia last year and who he met.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on “Meet the Press” that trip could be when Tamerlan "got that final radicalization to push him to commit acts of violence and where he may have received training." 

FBI, Homeland Security and counterterrorism officials on Tuesday will provide a classified briefing to members of Congress on the Boston Marathon bombings.

Authorities are also trying to figure out where the suspects got their bomb-making supplies and guns. Cambridge Police said neither one had the necessary permits to carry firearms.

Immigration officials have arrested two of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's friends on immigration violations, days after they were detained and questioned by police in New Bedford, Mass.

In another development on Monday, the FBI turned the street where the bombings occurred – Boylston Street -- back over to the city of Boston, which will begin a cleanup and decontamination process before it is reopened to the public. A specific date has not been set.

As part of a handover ceremony, the FBI presented Mayor Thomas Menino with an American flag that flew at half-staff over the Boston Marathon finish line.

NBC News staff writer Jeff Black contributed to this report.

Related:

Classmates of bomb suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev suggest 'brainwashing' by brother

Terrorists may leave 'digital breadcrumbs' for investigators

Boston nurses tell of bloody aftermath

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:18 AM EDT