Citing the FBI, New Jersey State Police said Monday that the bombs in Chelsea and the New Jersey shore town Seaside Park were connected.
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Investigators want to talk to the two men but appear to have moved away from the idea that the pair had been involved. NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill described the men as “strolling” along the street and seeming “incredulous” when they took the bag. He was found after the owner of a local bar discovered him sleeping in a hallway.
Fifteen years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, officials say lone-wolf attacks perpetrated by individuals who may be inspired by IS or Al-Qaeda propaganda are the greatest terror threat to the homeland.
Rahami wasn’t on any terror or no-fly watch lists, though he had been interviewed for immigration purposes while traveling between the USA and Afghanistan, one of the law enforcement officials said.
If Rahami is not a lone wolf, where’s the rest of the pack?
His fingerprints and DNA were found at the scene of the Manhattan bombing, they said. The 28-year-old is a naturalized American citizen who immigrated from Afghanistan as a child. While there he married a Pakistani woman, in July 2011.
Investigators will be looking into his travels to both countries – especially to areas recognized as Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds – to see if he was radicalized overseas.
Investigators also are trying to piece together Rahami’s background and what he did during visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan. NY mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN’s New Day that Rahami, a New Jersey resident of Afghan descent, is a naturalized US citizen.
“This has the flavor of someone who was self-radicalized, and perhaps who was inspired but not instructed”, he said.
The official says two officers were shot in the encounter in Linden, N.J. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
So far, Rahami has not been cooperating with police, a law enforcement official said.
“They have hundreds of young men who are attracted to ISIS or following supporters of different terrorist groups and are speaking out online, doing things on social media – he was not one of these people”.
Adjudication of the lawsuit was put on hold in 2011 when the elder Rahami traveled to Pakistan and was unable to return to the U.S.in time, court filings show. He also spent nearly a year in Pakistan – again visiting Afghanistan – from April 2013 until March 2014. He first came in January 1995, several years after his father arrived seeking asylum.
William Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant director in NY, said on Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had gotten a report of a domestic incident involving Rahami some time ago, but the allegations had been recanted, and “there’s nothing to indicate that now he was on our radar”.
His family has a history of clashing with the community over the restaurant, which used to be open 24 hours a day. It was one of as many as five potential bombs found at the site, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage told reporters.
“Was he making trial runs at this, where was he doing that?”
No one was injured in the other blasts.
Rahami lived with his family on a busy street a few miles from the Newark airport.
Neighbors had complained to Elizabeth officials that the Rahamis’ restaurant was a late-night nuisance, Democratic Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said. An Edison Township School District official declined to comment Monday when asked whether Rahami had graduated from the district.
“I would like people to respect my family’s privacy and let us have our peace after this tragic time”, wrote Zobyedh Rahami, who’s believed to be Ahmad Rahami’s sister. According to the cable-news network, authorities will work with officials in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates to locate and question her about what she might have known about the explosions.
“We need to get this guy in right away”, de Blasio said on CNN. Once it was renewed, she became pregnant and officials told her they would not give a visa until she had the baby. Federal prosecutors said they were weighing charges over the bombings that wounded 29 people. The congressman doesn’t know what happened after that. Authorities are investigating the stabbings as a possible terrorist attack but have not drawn any connection between the bloodshed there and the bombings.
Officials in NY and New Jersey also say they believe others may have been involved in the plot to set off the bomb in NY, which left 29 people hurt on Saturday evening.
Officials haven’t revealed any details about the makeup of the pressure cooker device, except to say it had wires and a cellphone attached to it. And that’s when I’m presuming the cop must have yelled at him, “Show me the hand'”.
Authorities have said Rahami is “directly linked” to the Seaside Park and Chelsea bombings.
Then, on Sunday night in Elizabeth, New Jersey, police found five pipe bombs. It wasn’t clear when Rahami would get an attorney.
What do the devices tell us?
A bloodied Rahami was loaded into the back of an ambulance, just 50 hours after the first blast that started it all. Investigators have not publicly tied Rahami to those devices.
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Bains told ABC News” Linsey Davis that the suspect “went for his gun towards his left side.
