(Moshe Weiss via AP).
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The suspect who allegedly carried out bombings in a Jersey shore town and New York City was charged Tuesday on four federal counts. Rahami remained hospitalized Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, after a shootout the day before with police in New Jersey. A New Jersey US congressman previously said Rahami had emailed his office in 2014 for help in getting her a visa to enter the United States from Pakistan when she was pregnant.
The two men, caught on surveillance video footage, are considered potential witnesses, not suspects, in the bombing, said Robert Boyce, chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department.
Prosecutors say Ahmad Khan Rahami has not officially been arrested yet by federal authorities.
Another section included a reference to “pipe bombs” and a “pressure cooker bomb” and declared: “In the streets they plan to run a mile” – an apparent reference to one of the blast sites, a charity run in a New Jersey shore town.
The FBI broadcast an image of the two men, saying in the bulletin that they are “interested in speaking to these individuals and recovering the luggage”.
A neighbor on the family’s block in Elizabeth said Thursday that the father had hoped the trip would nurture more discipline in the sons and when they returned they seemed more religious.
In court papers, a public defender sought a court appearance for Rahami, an Afghan-born US citizen, so he can hear the federal terrorism charges against him.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents interviewed the father in 2014 after Ahmad Rahami’s arrest on charges – later dropped – that he stabbed one of his brothers in the leg.
The judge noted that court rules require an arrested person be brought before the court “without unnecessary delay”. “They’re not in any jeopardy of being arrested”, O’Neill said.
Federal agents would like to question Rahami.
Rahami is the primary suspect in the September 17 bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood that injured 29 people.
The U.S. attorney general, Loretta Lynch, said Wednesday that the government would bring Rahami to NY to face charges.
In a journal uncovered by police, Rahami reportedly praised al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. -born Muslim cleric and al-Qaeda propagandist killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011, as well as Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
“You (USA Government) continue your [unintelligible] slaught [er] against the mujahidean [Islamic warriors] be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Sham [Syria], Palestine.” part of the journal reads, according to the complaint.
NY police said on Wednesday they had not yet been cleared to interview Rahami and were waiting for doctors to confirm that he is well enough to be questioned.
Law enforcement officials said Rahami’s wife has returned to the United States after giving a statement to a US embassy in the United Arab Emirates.
A third official said that the wife had been scheduled to return in the coming days and that authorities did not believe she was delaying her return in response to the bombings. But he said if there are gaps in coverage, the state would pay for anything left outstanding from its emergency funds.
Federal prosecutors say bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami bought components online and recorded a video of himself igniting a blast in a backyard.
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Linda Flores-Tober, executive director of the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, says she is glad Parker is being recognized. It is unknown where they are going.
