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NY Times: Bomb Suspect's Father Warned FBI 2 Years Ago Son Was Terrorist
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 12:01 PM
By: Newsmax Wires
Authorities were warned two years ago that Ahmad Khan Rahami — the suspect in Saturday's bombings in New York City and New Jersey — was a terrorist, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Two senior law enforcement officials told the newspaper that in 2014, Rahami's father told police that his son was a terrorist. The accusation prompted "a review by federal agents" that was dropped when the father later recanted.
It is not clear if officers interviewed Ahmad Rahami, and his father recanted after the FBI opened an initial investigation. An unnamed official cited by the Times said the man made the accusation because he was angry with his son.
The latest development in the terror case came as law enforcement sources told several media outlets that they found a notebook and handwritten note on Rahami in which he wrote about terrorists.
CNN and CBS News said they containing "ramblings" and sympathetic writings about terrorists and the Boston Marathon bombers.
Rahami also made mention of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric turned senior recruiter and a spokesman for al-Qaida, CNN says it was told by a senior law enforcement official.
And CBS News cited three U.S. law enforcement officials as saying Rahami's writings also contain references to Osama Bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
The notebook also had a passage about "killing the kuffar," or unbeliever, according to The Times. It was said to be damaged by a bullet hole and soaked with Rahami's blood from gunfire that erupted Monday morning.
That's when police attempted to arrest Rahami in connection with the Saturday explosions in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood and a U.S. Marine Corps charity race on the Jersey Shore.
The New York bomb, which police said was built to inflict maximum injuries, injured 29 people. Rahami was taken into custody after shooting and injuring two police officers.
The notebook revelation comes as officials attempt to learn if Rahami — who was living in Elizabeth, New Jersey — acted alone in his alleged terror acts or had the support of radical Islamists in the Middle East.
So far, federal law enforcement does not believe Rahami was part of a terror cell in the United States, but the investigation is continuing.
CBS News said Rahami has traveled to Afghanistan "at least three times" in recent years and visited Pakistan on at least one of those trips. He was not on any watch or travel restriction lists.
Officials began a manhunt for Rahami after surveillance footage allegedly showed him setting two bombs in Manhattan — a pressure cooker loaded with shrapnel which exploded about 8:30 p.m., and another that did not detonate.
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