The Afghan immigrant arrested in the bombings that rocked a New York City neighborhood and a New Jersey shore town is facing attempted murder charges over his dramatic capture.
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Ahmad Rahami, the suspect in a series of bombings in NY and New Jersey, was charged with four counts in federal court on Tuesday including the use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing, destruction of property and use of a destructive device.
One portion expressed concern at the prospect of being caught before being able to carry out a suicide attack and the desire to be a martyr, the complaint said.
According to the court documents, investigators believe Ramani used an eBay account with the username “ahmad rahimi” to buy citric acid, a circuit board, electric igniters and hundreds of ball bearings between June 20 and August 10.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is the first to bring federal charges against the accused terrorist, who has yet to be charged in New Jersey for allegedly setting several pipe bombs in Seaside Park and Elizabeth.
There also were laudatory references to Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki – the American-born Muslim cleric who was killed in a 2011 drone strike and whose preaching has inspired other acts of violence – and Nidal Hasan, the former Army officer who went on a deadly shooting rampage in 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas, the complaints said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that it began an assessment of the younger Rahami in 2014 based on comments his father made about his son after “a domestic dispute”.
“Two years ago, I go to the Federal Bureau of Investigation because my son was doing really bad, OK?” he said. During the inquiry, the father backed away from talk of terrorism and told investigators that he simply meant his son was hanging out with the wrong crowd and acting like a thug, the officials said.
“But they checked, nearly two months, and they say, ‘He’s OK, he’s clear, he’s not terrorist.’ Now they say he’s a terrorist”, the father said outside the family’s fried-chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They said he worked there until September 12, but didn’t identify the store. No one was injured.
He added: “Now they say he is a terrorist”. The messages include praise of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011, and “Brother Osama Bin Laden”, the former head of al-Qaida who was killed by USA forces in Pakistan in 2011.
On a trip to Pakistan in 2014, Rahami emailed his local congressman seeking help because his pregnant wife had an expired passport.
They said they lifted his DNA and fingerprints from the unexploded pressure cooker bomb.
Asia Bibi Rahami went to the United Arab Emirates a few days before the bombings but is expected to fly back to the US this week to chat with authorities.
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“They will be there for the next few hours, going through this location to find any evidence possible, whether it’s in relation to this incident or the Chelsea incident”, he said.
