Manhattan bombing suspect was on FBI’s radar two years ago
NEW YORK — The FBI looked into New York bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami two years ago — and came up empty-handed — after his father expressed concerns his son might be a terrorist, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
During the inquiry, the father backed away from talk of terrorism and told investigators that he simply meant his son was hanging out with the wrong crowd, including gang members, and acting like a thug, the officials said.
In any case, the FBI checked its databases and other sources and closed the inquiry in a matter of weeks after finding nothing tying Rahami to terrorism, three law enforcement officials said.
Also Tuesday, investigators disclosed that when Rahami was shot and captured, he had a notebook with him that contained extremist ramblings.
One bloodstained section contained references to both Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who was killed in a 2011 drone strike and whose preaching has inspired other acts of violence, and Nidal Hasan, the former United States Army officer who went on a deadly shooting rampage in 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas.
The information emerged as the younger Rahami, 28, was being held on $5.2 million bail, charged with the attempted murder of police officers during the shootout that led to his capture Monday. Federal prosecutors said they were still drawing up charges over the weekend bombings in New York City and a New Jersey seaside town that wounded 29 people.
Rahami’s father spoke with the FBI after Rahami was charged in 2014 with stabbing his brother, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Rahami was not prosecuted in the stabbing; a grand jury declined to indict him.
The disclosure of the father’s contacts with the FBI raises questions about whether there was anything more law enforcement could have done at the time to determine whether Rahami had terrorist aspirations.
That issue arose after the Orlando massacre in June, when FBI Director James Comey said agents a few years earlier had looked into the gunman, Omar Mateen, but did not find enough information to pursue charges or keep him under investigation.
In Rahami’s case, the law enforcement official said the FBI had opened up an “assessment,” the least intrusive form of an FBI inquiry. Justice Department guidelines restrict the types of actions agents may take; they cannot, for instance, record phone calls without obtaining a higher level of approval or developing more grounds for suspicion.
“In August 2014, the FBI initiated an assessment of Ahmad Rahami based upon comments made by his father after a domestic dispute that were subsequently reported to authorities,” the agency said in a statement. “The FBI conducted internal database reviews, interagency checks, and multiple interviews, none of which revealed ties to terrorism.”
Rahami, a U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, remained hospitalized Tuesday after surgery for a gunshot wound to his leg. He was captured in Linden, N.J., after he was discovered sleeping in the doorway of a bar.
Federal agents have attempted to question Rahami in the hospital. But Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., who received a classified briefing from the FBI, said Rahami was not co-operating.
The congressman said he doesn’t know whether Rahami has a lawyer.