Terrorist suspect in New York and New Jersey bombings captured
Ahmad Khan Rahami, a man suspected in connection with the recent New York and New Jersey bombings, has been captured after a shootout with police in New Jersey:
The FBI had earlier released a wanted poster for the 28-year-old Rahami, who was said to be operating a 2003 Blue Honda Civic bearing NJ registration D63EYB. He may be related to five people who were taken into custody for questioning by the FBI in connection with Saturday night’s bombing in Chelsea…
The governor of New York now says it looks like Manhattan bombing could be act of terrorism with foreign connection…
“This was an intentional act, but we do not know the motivation. That’s what we have to do more work on,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We know there was a bombing. We will be very careful and patient to get to the full truth here.”
There are, of course, many questions. The five people were taken into custody after a “traffic stop of a vehicle of interest in the investigation.” What made this vehicle “of interest”? My guess is that either there was a surveillance video that identified a car or person (and then that person’s vehicle) in connection with the bombing, or perhaps this was a person or cell already known to police.
As for motivation, initial disclaimers that this was not a terrorist act seems to have been incorrect; we’ve seen this sort of revision often. We still don’t know for absolute certainty—as de Blasio is careful to note—but one can safely conclude, as the governor seems to have done, that it is highly, highly likely it was an act of terrorism. And not just terrorism; Islamist terrorism, either perpetrated by an official cell of a terrorist group or by a bunch of sympathizers (or perhaps just one).
Rahami is an Afghan refugee and naturalized citizen:
His last known address was in Elizabeth, N.J., the city where authorities found pipe bombs in a garbage can Monday morning.
The FBI raided the Elizabeth address in the morning. The apartment is above a restaurant run by Rahami’s father, called First American Fried Chicken.
How ironic.
The article goes on to say that Rahami junior was considered by customers to have been “a chilling presence” in the restaurant.
Here’s how the initial bombing in New Jersey unfolded, and it’s clear things might have been worse:
An explosion blew apart a garbage can along the route of a planned 5K charity race to benefit U.S. Marines and sailors that drew thousands of runners. If the start of the race had not been delayed due to a vast amount of participants, authorities said the blast would have gone off as the area was filled with runners. But the explosion occurred when few people were in the area, and no one was injured
The race was canceled after the blast, and authorities quickly determined that the explosion was more than a prank because of the sophistication of the device which had multiple pipe bombs wired together, though only one went off.
Shades of the Boston marathon, with a military connection.
The later explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, thought to be connected, was more successful (at least from a bomber’s point of view). It injured 29 people.
[NOTE: As everyone except those who’ve been living under a rock for the past year knows, we have an election coming up in about seven weeks. In terms of politics, the person I can imagine this incident helping is Donald Trump.]
[ADDENDUM: As often happens, there’s a lot more detail in this British report, including the following:
The backpack was discovered in a wastebasket near Elizabeth Station by two men at around 8:30pm, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said, adding: ‘They took the package out of the wastebasket because they thought it was of some value to them.’
Seeing wires and a pipe, the men then dropped the bag and called police – who dispatched a robot to disarm the devices.
However, footage from the scene shows the robot accidentally cutting the wrong wire on one of the IEDs, causing a huge explosion. One of the robots was damaged, but no one was hurt in the blast.
Also at 8.45pm, FBI agents in New York detained five New Jersey men on the Belt Parkway near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Brooklyn.
Their car was said by authorities to contain a weapons stash and bomb-making equipment. The men, who were believed to be heading to an airport, were taken to Federal Plaza in Manhattan for questioning.
Officials said the men were from the same family, that there could be more suspects at large, and that a terror cell may be operating in the area.
So if all of this is true, we learn that the men were all members of the same family, they were carrying explosives in the SUV, and the NJ wastebasket bomb was discovered by people scavenging around in the trash for something of value and finding, to their consternation, the makings of a bomb.
There’s also this on how Rahami was located, after police had announced he was a suspect and released his photo:
He was spotted sleeping in the doorway of a bar called Merdies on Elizabeth Avenue in Linden, New Jersey, not far from his home in the town of Elizabeth.
Bar owner Harry Barnes initially told him to move out of the doorway in Spanish, as he didn’t want the man to be injured on broken glass lying on the ground.
When Rahami replied in English and looked up, the owner realized who he was and ran across the street to another business he owns to call 911.
After police arrived, Rahami pulled a gun on them and began shooting. One officer was hit in the hand and another in his vest. Rahami himself was shot in the shoulder and subsequently arrested.
And then, in another touch that (if true) will probably come as no surprise, we have this:
An investigation by Dailymail.com revealed Monday that the Rahamis had filed a complaint against local police, whom they said persecuted them, forcing the family to close their restaurant earlier than necessary on evenings.
The suit also said that locals had met them with racist language and told them Muslims do not belong in the area.
It was dismissed with prejudice – meaning that it cannot be resubmitted to court – in 2012.
This was a very serious terrorist attempt that fortunately went mostly wrong. That bomb (or actually, bombs) at the Elizabeth, NJ train station could have injured or killed large numbers of people but was found and detonated before rush hour began.
Thinking about it, and noting how much of the action centered in New Jersey, I’m wondering whether this whole group wasn’t already generally suspect and then the location of some of the bombs gave police an idea they might be the culprits.]
Immigration is the issue for me. No borders…no country. None of the wisdom that is the foundation and reason for this country’s founding is being observed by this rogue government. They pick and choose the laws that will be observed, usually to the advantage (penalties paid by actual citizens) of the government…city, state and federal. Tipping point from where I sit.
What is surprising – for people who are so “highly dedicated” to a cause – is how incompetent they have been.
Even the targets, other than the marathon one, that missed by luck of a delay, don’t seem particularly “mission prioritized”.
Thank Goodness for that, but makes one wonder.
Article posted today mentions that over 800 immigrants were given citizenship when there was an issue (came from countries with security issues, used wrong names & birth dates, had deportation orders, etc).
The picture of the DHS building has a very nice fence surrounding it with security cameras.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-800-immigrants-mistakenly-granted-citizenship-130452164–politics.html
@liz – from that article…
“such discrepancies weren’t caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases.
DHS said in an emailed statement that an initial review of these cases suggest that some of the individuals may have ultimately qualified for citizenship, and that the lack of digital fingerprint records does not necessarily mean they committed fraud.”
That said, clearly, there is a problem with the immigration process, and the overall strategy / priorities.
Very must support changes to it.
Family connections are very important to terrorists. Just ask Huma Abedin and her Muslim Brotherhood relatives.
Personal conspiracy theory time: I think the bombs this weekend were deliberately small scale, planted by the “B team” whose bosses/allies/mentors planned for them to get caught. This weekend was a feint, testing reactions,responses, countermeasures, and exposing law-enforcement and counter-terrorism methods and methodologies.
The bigger attack is going to come on Election Day – simultaneous attacks, some small bombs, some larger ones, at and near polling places across the country. The intention is to create enough chaos around the election so that whomever wins, their legitimacy is thrown into doubt by both the opposition and many independents.
The ultimate culprit is Putin, running and manipulating Islamic terror cells to his own ends. Once a terrorist has a loose allegiance to ISIS, chances are, no one is going to look much farther, and ISIS’s international messaging and command and control are diffuse enough to easily be spoofed by Russian intelligence.
A weakly elected President Trump or Clinton will have absolutely minimum ability to stand up to Putin’s games in Eastern Europe. The opposing party in Congress will almost certainly be doing everything they can to bring down the President before they can appoint a single Supreme Court Justice, and that’s where the media’s attention will be as well. Putin will be able to move troops or cause coups wherever he wants anywhere East of Germany and South of Finland.
“As often happens, there’s a lot more detail in this British report”
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Apparently America’s dominant media has a joint Ministry of Truth which does not authorize reports that vary from an agreed orthodoxy. See Career, Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News.
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h/t WJ Clinton on spouse’s frequency of dehydration episodes.
Wow, another terror incident not linked to Tea Parties or Rightwingnuts. But, of course, I guess I am jumping to conclusions before officials tell me what to think.
Here’s a funny only-in-New-York story about the bombing:
link to full article:
http://tinyurl.com/zyrodh7
“[T]wo thieves accidentally helped to disable his second pressure cooker bomb left inside a rolling suitcase on West 27th Street …
The young men, who sources described as being well-dressed, opened the bag and took the bomb out, sources said, before placing the explosive into a garbage bag and walking away with the rolling suitcase.
‘Once they picked up the bag, they seemed incredulous. They had actually picked this up off the street and they walked off with it,’ according to Robert Boyce, the NYPD’s Chief of Detectives.
‘They look like they were two gentlemen just strolling up and down Seventh Avenue at the time,’ Boyce added.
Investigators believe they inadvertently disabled the explosive, sources said.
‘It’s difficult to say right now if they at all, inadvertently perhaps even, pulled a wire,’ Boyce said.
Since the bomb remained intact, it allowed investigators to examine the cellphone attached to the bomb intact and discover that it was connected to the family of Rahami.”
P.S. I still can’t see comments until they’re a day old. If someone’s already noted this story, then my apologies for the repetition.
Check out the Yelp “reviews” for First American Chicken in Elizabeth, NJ.
Not nice! But some are funny.
The St Cloud stabbings are very disturbing; terrorize small towns in the heartland to send the message that everyone everywhere is a potential target. Sooner or later this type of attack will come to an elementary school in rural area.
Parker
As the Islamists wise up they will hit smaller cities like Omaha as the CCTV network isn’t built out here like it is in NYC. The NJ terrorist was caught quickly because they had a video of him at the scene.
Big Maq,
Yes, their incompetence is astounding. No escape plan, evidenced by sleeping in a bar’s doorway? Stupid is as stupid does…
parker,
Yes, an attack on an elementary school is a predictable certainty.
Cornhead,
From my perspective Omaha is not a small city, heck Des Moines looks large to me.
GB,
After the St Cloud attack, I decided to carry my Government Model Colt Series 80 380 ACP everywhere. I carry it cocked and locked loaded with Corbon P+ hollow points and a second mag in my left pocket. Mrs parker now carries her 38 SPL S&W snub nose.
Arm yourselves, the battle is at your front porch.
parker,
I have a concealed carry permit but until now I have rarely felt the need to carry my 9 mm Glock. After St. Cloud I’ve decided that any of us who can legally do so have a moral responsibility to carry our weapon at all times.
There are minor details with “predictable certainties,” i.e., when, where, and by whom, (recent immigrant, second generation from Islamic immigrant, domestic non-Islamic with a.b, normal thought processes, …..) that make such predictions less than useful. Especially so if local and state attitudes and regulations prevent reasonable precautions. Am I profound, eh? Not so much.
For those of you who carry, you may find this interesting:
http://weaponsman.com/?p=35093
Cornflour:
That’s an amazing story.
Our witless media can’t comprehend that all of their musings merely step up the game for those who must follow.
There should be NO reportage about HOW the jihadi screwed up.
EVER.
Freedom of the press – NEVER!
OM,
Bed time means a 12 guage loaded with 8 buckshot within easy reach. The dogs are the early warning system. Mrs parker and her snubby 38 is backup.
Chris,
Your situation is similar to mine. St Cloud nudged me to carry everywhere, before I only carried in what I considered potential threat environments. It has become a civic duty.
“Our witless media can’t comprehend that all of their musings merely step up the game for those who must follow.
There should be NO reportage about HOW the jihadi screwed up.
EVER.” – blert
The won’t stop, for much the same reason they gave trump $Billions in free coverage in the GOP candidacy race.
Here is probably one of the most honest looks at the terrorism problem. Don’t agree with everything Leon Wolf says, but there is much to agree with…
http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/09/21/will-probably-never-rid-islamic-terrorism/
Islam has never been “gotten rid of” so of course Islamic terrorism has never also been gotten rid of. The West suppressed the Ottomans, the last Islamic Sunni Caliphate, but that was temporary.