On Saturday a bomb exploded on West 23 Street (pictured) in Manhattan; that same day a pipe bomb went off in New Jersey. By showing the entire world that as Americans we do not, and never will give into fear.
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President Barack Obama addressed the nation after a series of terrorist attacks took place in the United States over the weekend, but appeared unaware of reports that said the suspect connected with the bombs in NY was already in custody.
Ahmad Khan Raham, the suspect in both of the bombings, was taken into custody Monday morning following a shootout.
He did raise the specter of terrorism at this point, saying the stabbing was being investigated as a terrorist attack but that it was not thought to be connected to the NY and NJ bombings.
Turning to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) IS, Obama said the U.S. will continue to “lead the global coalition” against the group. “We’re gonna continue go after them, we’re going to take out their leaders, their infrastructure”.
The President also said that investigators and agencies were ‘working seamlessly as one team to make sure that justice is done’.
“Remember what terrorists and violent extremists are trying to do-they want to inspire fear in all of us and disrupt the way we live, and undermine our values”, the president said.
Then, without directly connecting the weekend attacks to ISIS, Obama made some general remarks about defeating the growing terror group.
All Americans “have a role to play as citizens in making sure that we don’t succumb to that fear”, the president said, and he held up the example of “he people of NY and New Jersey”.
“Folks around here, you know, they don’t get scared. They are continuing to lose ground in Iraq and in Syria and later today I’ll be meeting with prime minister Abadi of Iraq to discuss the need to sustain that momentum”. By showing those who want to do us harm that they will never beat us.
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The president, who is in NY for political events and for the United Nations General Assembly, left the details of the investigation to law enforcement but acknowledged that “there is a person of interest that is the focus of the investigation”.
