This video frame grab provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows two unidentified men walking in the Chelsea neighbourhood of NY, around the time when a bomb exploded on a nearby street. 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 Seaside Park, New Jersey.
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The FBI released this surveillance photo of two individuals sought for questioning in connection with the explosion in Chelsea.
It’s not immediately clear whether Rahami has a lawyer who can comment on the charges.
The agency said it wanted to speak to the two unidentified men as witnesses, not suspects, in the case against 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, who is accused of planting one bomb in New Jersey and two in NY. The charges were lodged in both NY and New Jersey federal courts.
He is still recovering from gunshot wounds he received in a Linden, New Jersey shootout when he was arrested Monday, and faces more charges for allegedly wounding two officers.
Federal investigators were probing Rahami’s history of travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and looking for any evidence that he may have been picked up radical views or trained in bomb-making on those trips.
David Patton, the top federal defender in NY, asked for Rahami to have a first court hearing today, suggesting that the suspected bomber could participate from his hospital bed.
“He has been held and questioned by federal law enforcement agents since his arrest, ” Patton wrote. “The Sixth Amendment requires that he be given access to counsel on the federal charges, and that he be presented without delay”.
While items such as “Ammo Slingshot Steelies” and electric igniters used for fireworks displays might seem harmless, in Ahmad Khan Rahami’s hands, they were combined to create tools of potential carnage, according to a criminal complaint filed in an American federal court early yesterday.
Two federal law enforcement officials said Rahami’s wife, thought to be a Pakistani national, will return soon to the United States.
However, there are contradictory accounts of how Rahami came to the attention of law enforcement.
USA authorities investigated on Wednesday whether anyone helped an Afghan-born American citizen charged with carrying out bombings in NY and New Jersey, while the city’s top federal public defender asked for access to the man.
Rahami’s public defender had asked he be brought to court Wednesday to face federal charges, but authorities said that could not happen until he was removed from the hospital in New Jersey, where he is in custody on the shootout-related charges, and brought to NY.
“The video depicts the lighting of the fuse, a loud noise and flames, followed by billowing smoke and laughter, ” the court documents state.
Bharara said he didn’t know when Rahami would actually be brought to federal court – citing “operational issues” with the marshals, the fact that Rahami is now in the custody of local officials in New Jersey, and Rahami’s medical condition.
A journal seized from Rahami shortly after his arrest suggested the suspect drew inspiration from al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, both killed in separate USA operations. “Inshallah (God willing) the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets”. Gun shots to your police. “Death to Your OPRESSION”.
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Federal prosecutors in NY and New Jersey issued criminal complaints Tuesday evening charging Rahami in weekend bombings in both those states.
