Authorities said it’s possible the men actually disarmed the bomb, accidentally, while removing it from the duffel bag.
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Investigators have pieced together a detailed timeline of Ahmad Khan Rahami’s movements, from the time he allegedly detonated a bomb in Seaside Park, New Jersey, on Saturday to his capture in Linden two days later, law enforcement sources told CNN.
Ahmad Rahami was taken into police custody after a shootout that left him injured.
Rahami left 12 fingerprints on one of the bombs he planted and bought materials for his bombs under his own name on eBay over the summer, according to federal charging documents. He is being held on $5.2 million bail, and he faces state charges of attempted murder of police officers. Investigators said the second bomb had “numerous” electric igniters.
Two police officers were also shot during Rahami’s arrest.
“The sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets”, the journal declared. One of the bombs injured 29 people.
The two men, who took the bag but left the improvised bomb on the street are not suspects, officials said, but investigators want to interview them as witnesses.
“We’re very much interested in speaking to them”, New York Police Counterterrorism Bureau Chief James Waters said. The company said it has been cooperating with the federal inquiry. Rahami was not prosecuted in the stabbing; a grand jury declined to indict him.
“Once they picked up the bag, they seemed incredulous they had actually picked this up off the street and they walked off with it”, Boyce said.
“What that tells me as a counter terrorism expert that now we can definitively say this was an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack”.
The FBI has faced questions before about whether it could have done more ahead of time to determine whether attackers had terrorist aspirations. “If the person had money, they would be able to talk to a lawyer”, Lefstein said. Authorities said some of the journal was unintelligible because it was damaged in the shootout.
Site Intelligence Group published Facebook posts by Rahami’s sister sharing quotes of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, while in other posts she appears to praise terrorists, CBS News reported.
He was known for speeches calling on supporters to launch terror attacks around the world, which have been directly cited by several jihadists who carried out atrocities in Europe and the San Bernardino massacre in California. On a trip to Pakistan in 2014, Rahami emailed his local congressman seeking help because his pregnant wife had an expired passport.
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Meanwhile, Rahami’s wife, Asia Bibi Rahami, who left the country shortly before the bombings, has been cooperating with authorities in the United Arab Emirates and is expected to return to the U.S.in the coming days, the official said, adding US investigators will seek to question the wife when she returns.
