The AP’s chief of global security, Danny Spriggs, said Rahami often engaged colleagues in long political discussions, expressing sympathy for the Taliban and disdain for U.S. military action in Afghanistan.
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The FBI interviewed Rahami’s father in 2014 after a violent domestic dispute.
Also as it did with some other lone attackers, the FBI investigated Rahami.
In all, Rahami was responsible for 10 explosive devices that were found, including one just four blocks away from the Chelsea blast that injured 29 people Saturday night along W. 23rd St.. The officials said Mohammad Rahami later claimed he simply meant his son was hanging out with gangs and acting like a thug.
The disclosure of the father’s contacts with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raises questions about whether there was anything more law enforcement could have done at the time to determine whether Rahami had terrorist aspirations.
“No one can point to any example of a civilian criminal prosecution where any of the issues we were anxious about actually manifested”, including attacks on a trial or inappropriate disclosures of national security information, said Stephen Vladeck, a national security law professor at the University of Texas. Federal law enforcement officials said they believe Rahami was responsible for that incident, too. Justice Department guidelines restrict the types of actions agents may take; they can not, for instance, record phone calls without obtaining a higher level of approval or developing more grounds for suspicion. Once it was renewed, she discovered she was pregnant.
On Sunday, several devices were found near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, near the home of Rahami and his family. Rahami was not prosecuted in the stabbing; a grand jury declined to indict him.
Sepulveda wouldn’t discuss where else Rahami had security assignments but said he was unaware of any complaints about his conduct.
Rahami is accused of using a mobile phone to detonate a pipe bomb targeting a charity run by US Marines in Seaside Park on Saturday, as well as pressure cooker bomb that injured 31 people in NY 11 hours later. No one was injured.
“To place bombs down the Jersey Shore, in New York City, and in Elizabeth took some time to do”, said Payne, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security emergency preparedness subcommittee. Investigators are still gathering evidence and have not publicly tied those devices to Rahami yet. “And I believe that is where the investigation stands right now”.
The Indian American bar owner was watching television coverage of Saturday’s bombing in NY and attempted attacks in New Jersey when he noticed a man sleeping outside his business in Linden.
He has yet to be interrogated, after undergoing surgery and being treated in “critical but stable” condition, NY police chief James O’Neill said.
Rahami, 28, has already been charged with attempted murder following a shootout with cops in the Garden State. US media reported he was captured with a bullet-torn notebook that contained pro-al-Qaida writings. A businessman spotted someone who he thought was a vagrant sleeping at his doorway in Linden, N.J., and called police, said Linden Mayor Derek Armstead. He spent three months in prison but was released without indictment.
On Saturday morning, a pipe bomb exploded in a rubbish bin along the route of a charity run in New Jersey.
But there are two things that forensics experts inside and outside of the government agree on: The bombs were relatively sophisticated, and if not for one key mistake, the attacks would have been much, much deadlier. Another bomb went off in NY, injuring 29.
The official said authorities are attempting to determine whether the person who recorded the video had specific knowledge of Rahami’s alleged plan.
Sires said his office wrote a letter to the US embassy in Pakistan to check on the status of the case and the woman received a visa.
Rahami’s wife, Asia Bibi Rahami, and his mother reportedly left the USA days before the attacks were carried out, raising additional questions about the bombings in Chelsea and the Jersey shore. A senior law enforcement official said the woman, Asia Bibi Rahami, has been cooperative “to a certain degree”.
Rahami was arrested not far from Elizabeth, where his family lived above their storefront First American Fried Chicken restaurant.
“I looked for guidance and”. In court papers, she said she last spoke to him on the telephone in January.
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Another line of inquiry may be whether the family’s tussles over their business could have played a role in radicalizing Rahami. The suit was settled in favor of the city.
