FBI Searching for Two Men Related to Bombing Investigation

The FBI looked into NY bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami two years ago after his father expressed concerns his son might be a terrorist, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. That interview stemmed from a tip alleging that Rahami’s father was calling his son a terrorist, according to two U.S. officials.

When Rahami was shot and taken into custody, he was carrying a notebook in which he praised “Brother Osama bin Laden” and other well-known worldwide terrorists, according to the complaint.

He is still recovering from gunshot wounds he received in a Linden, New Jersey shootout when he was arrested Monday, and faces more charges for allegedly wounding two officers.

A LAWYER for an Afghan-born USA citizen charged with bombings last weekend in NY and New Jersey asked a federal judge to schedule his first court appearance, possibly in his hospital bed. Twelve fingerprints recovered from the pressure cooker, duct tape and triggering cell phone were matched to Rahami.

Linda Flores-Tober, executive director of the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, says she is glad Parker is being recognized. She was scheduled to return to the U.S. After the bombing, she spoke with U.S. investigators in Dubai.

The police commissioner, James O’Neill, said they were considered “witnesses”. They took out the device, but left it at the scene.

United States authorities investigated whether Rahami, the naturalised American citizen captured on Monday, had accomplices in the bombings or if he was radicalised during trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Maria Mena, 26, who described her ex-lover as a deadbeat, gay-hating dad, was granted temporary sole custody at a court in New Jersey yesterday.

Rahami’s father later recanted and said he had spoken out of anger.

Rahami was accused of stabbing one of his brothers in 2014, but a grand jury declined to indict him, despite a warning from the arresting officer that Rahami likely was “a danger to himself or others”, court records show.

A criminal complaint filed in NY alleges that Rahami began buying bomb components in June, by purchasing citric acid, circuit boards, ball bearings and electric igniters on eBay.

Nor were Afghan intelligence officials aware of either Rahami or his family, said Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, director-general of the Afghan National Directorate of Security. The location was serving as the venue for a Marine Corps charity race. No one was injured.

This video frame grab provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows two unidentified men walking in the Chelsea neighbourhood of NY, around the time when a bomb exploded on a nearby street.

A pressure-cooker bomb packed with shrapnel exploded Saturday evening in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.

He was also suspected of planting a nest of bombs at a train station in the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey that the authorities defused on Monday.

The complaint also alleges that Rahami tested devices similar to the ones used in the explosions in the days leading up to the attacks.

Two federal law enforcement officials said Rahami’s wife, thought to be a Pakistani national, will return soon to the United States. They they left the scene with the duffel bag that originally concealed the bomb.