The charges were laid out in a federal complaint that said a handwritten journal was found on the suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, that praised Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks and accused the USA government of slaughtering Islamist fighters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.
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The FBI acknowledged it had investigated Rahami in 2014, but found no “ties to terrorism” and dropped its inquiry.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment on the charges against him, which include federal terror crimes and state charges of attempting to murder police officers. However, investigators found no evidence to prompt a full-scale investigation into the son, and the initial investigation was closed without action, the law enforcement official said.
Ahmad Rahami, who has been charged with planting bombs in NY and New Jersey, is portrayed by federal prosecutors as a militant who praised Osama bin Laden and begged for martyrdom.
Rahami underwent surgery and was in “critical but stable” condition, NY police chief James O’Neill said Tuesday. Separate footage broadcast by CBS purported to show Rahami dragging a large bag down a street in the district.
The FBI said Tuesday it assessed Rahami’s activities in 2014 after his father told agents he was concerned about his son’s possible involvement with extremists. 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. Rahami underwent surgery on his wounds and remains in hospital. As a high school senior in 2007, he got his girlfriend Maria pregnant, and she “was very pregnant” by the senior prom, said Chris Konya, a high school classmate from New Jersey.
The White House said yesterday it appeared that the bombings were “an act of terrorism” as an investigation continued in to whether Rahami had accomplices, or if he picked up militant Islamic views during trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In August 2014, Rahami was charged with aggravated assault and unlawfully possessing a knife after being accused of stabbing Nasim Rahami in the leg. A grand jury declined to indict him, despite a warning from the arresting officer that Rahami was probably “a danger to himself or others”.
The FBI has said Rahami apparently was not on its radar at the time of the bombing.
Nor were Afghan intelligence officials aware of either Rahami or his family, said Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, director-general of the Afghan National Directorate of Security.
He also is accused of planting another pressure-cooker bomb in Chelsea that failed to explode, and multiple devices at a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. No one was injured.
In 2013, two brothers planted pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel near the marathon’s finish line. Investigators have not publicly tied Rahami to those devices.
Rahami provided investigators with a wealth of clues that led to his arrest just 50 hours after the first explosion, according to three law enforcement officials.
His fingerprints and DNA were found at the scene of the Manhattan bombing, they said. His face was clearly captured by surveillance cameras near the spot of the blast.
The official who spoke to AP insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Those and other clues spurred officials to release his name and photo Monday morning.
“A lot of technology involved in this, but a lot of good, old-fashioned police work, too, ” New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said Monday.
The charging documents and accompanying sworn statements from Federal Bureau of Investigation agents offer the first official explanation of what they believe to be the bomber’s motive.
Rahami wasn’t on any terror or no-fly watch lists, though he had been interviewed for immigration purposes while traveling between the USA and Afghanistan, one of the law enforcement officials said.
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Rahami’s family sued Elizabeth in 2011, accusing the city and local police department of religious and ethnic discrimination in forcing them to close their chicken restaurant by 10:00 p.m.
