U.S. portrays NY bomb suspect as jihadist
who praised bin Laden
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[September 21, 2016]
By Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors on
Tuesday charged the Afghan-born man suspected of weekend bombings in New
York and New Jersey with 10 counts including use of weapons of mass
destruction, portraying him as a jihadist who begged for martyrdom and
praised Osama bin Laden.
The suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, bought bomb components on eBay, made a
video of himself testing out homemade explosives, and kept a journal
expressing outrage at the U.S. "slaughter" of mujahideen in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Syria and Palestine, federal officials allege.
"Inshallah (God willing), the sounds of bombs will be heard in the
streets. Gun shots to your police. Death to your oppression," Rahami,
who came to the United States at age 7, wrote in a journal he was
carrying when arrested.
Rahami was apprehended on Monday in Linden, New Jersey, after a shootout
with police that left him with multiple gunshot wounds. He was listed in
critical but stable condition on Tuesday, and police had not yet been
able to interview him in depth, New York Police Commissioner James
O'Neill said.Federal prosecutors from separate districts in New York and
New Jersey charged him with four and six counts respectively.
In addition to leaving the bomb that exploded on Saturday evening in the
Manhattan district of Chelsea that wounded 31 people, they allege he
planted a pipe bomb on the New Jersey shore that injured no one when it
exploded on Saturday morning.
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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. One of those exploded as a bomb squad robot
attempted to defuse it.
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.
As the charges were made public, the White House for the first time said
it appeared the attacks were an act of terrorism. Earlier in the
investigation, officials had withheld such an assessment until they
could discern a motive.
"It does appear this was an act of terrorism," White House spokesman
Josh Earnest said during a press briefing in New York City.
At least one victim in the Chelsea blast was knocked unconscious and
another hospitalized to remove ball bearings from her body, metal
fragmentation from her ear and wood shards from her neck, the charging
documents say.
Surveillance video from the bomb scenes and fingerprints on unexploded
devices also point to Rahami, according to the documents.
The three counts of using weapons of mass destruction, one from New York
and two from New Jersey, each carry a maximum sentence of life in
prison.
In addition to the federal charges, New Jersey state prosecutors from
Union County have charged Rahami with five counts of attempted
first-degree murder for firing at police officers and two second-degree
weapons counts.
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![](../images/092116pics/news_b3.jpg)
A still image captured from a video from WABC television shows a
conscious man believed to be New York bombing suspect Ahmad Khan
Rahami being loaded into an ambulance after a shoot-out with police
in Linden, New Jersey, U.S., September 19, 2016. Courtesy WABC-TV
via REUTERS
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JIHADI JOURNAL
Other parts of Rahami's journal praise "Brother" Osama bin Laden;
Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric and leading al Qaeda
propagandist who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011;
and Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people
and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
"I beg ... for shahadat (martyrdom) and inshallah this call will be
answered," he wrote in a passage expressing concern about getting
caught.
Video found on a family member's mobile phone dated two days before
the bombings and taken near his home in New Jersey showed him
lighting a fuse that igniting incendiary material packed in a
partially buried cylinder.
An eBay account linked to Rahami bought a precursor chemical used in
explosives, circuit boards and ball bearings that matched the
explosives and remnants collected at the crime scenes, the documents
said.
Investigators also traced mobile phones used in the bombs to Rahami
and said he played jihadist videos from social media.
Earlier on Tuesday Rahami's father said he had reported concerns
about his son being involved with militants to the Federal Bureau of
Investigations two years ago.
The FBI acknowledged it had investigated Rahami in 2014, but found
no "ties to terrorism" and dropped its inquiry.
His father, Mohammad Rahami, briefly emerged on Tuesday from the
family's restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, about 20 miles (30 km)
west of New York City, telling reporters, "I called the FBI two
years ago."
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The FBI said in a statement that it began an assessment of the
younger Rahami in 2014 based on comments his father made about his
son after "a domestic dispute."
"The FBI conducted internal database reviews, interagency checks,
and multiple interviews, none of which revealed ties to terrorism,"
the FBI said.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Mica Rosenberg in Elizabeth,
N.J., Mark Hosenball and Julia Edwards in Washington and Jeffrey
Dastine an dChristine Prentice in New York; Writing by Daniel
Trotta; Editing by Alan Crosby)
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