Investigators Focus on Motive, Possible Foreign Ties in New York Bombing
By VOA News 20 September 2016
U.S. authorities are working to determine whether the suspect in Saturday's bombings in New York City and New Jersey has any foreign terror ties and what may have motivated the attack that wounded 29 people.
Police arrested Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, on Monday after a search they said focused on him because he was spotted on surveillance video at the blast site and another nearby location where a similar bomb was found but did not explode. Investigators also said they found fingerprint and DNA evidence.
Friends who knew him were left wondering whether a turn to his Muslim faith in recent years after a trip to Pakistan might have hinted at a change in his world outlook that he kept hidden.
Changes noticed
Some said he became more stern, grew a beard, started wearing traditional Muslim robes, and praying at the rear of the family's restaurant, First American Fried Chicken, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, near New York City.
But some neighbors and restaurant customers knew him as the genial presence behind the counter who talked about the souped-up Honda Civics he liked to race, occasionally gave away free food and allowed local bands to practice at the restaurant.
U.S. authorities said Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Afghan descent, was not on any list of suspected terrorists or a no-fly ledger. One official said Rahami's father contacted the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2014 to say that his son was a terrorist, but later retracted it.
Wife left US
The CNN television network reported Rahami's wife left the United States several days before the Saturday explosion. American officials are working with authorities in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates in an attempt to interview her.
An Afghan presidential spokesman, Menapal Dawa Khan, told VOA Tuesday that even though Rahami is a U.S. citizen, the Kabul government is ready to fully cooperate in the investigation if needed.
Rahami reportedly traveled to Afghanistan about four years ago. Also, U.S. news media reported he had traveled to neighboring Pakistan in 2011 and 2013 where he spent time in the southwestern city of Quetta and returned to the United States in 2014, after having married overseas.
Rahami has been charged with five counts of attempted murder in connection with an exchange of gunfire he had with officers who confronted and arrested him in nearby Linden, New Jersey. A bar owner there had found Rahami sleeping in a doorway and called police.
Federal prosecutors have not yet filed charges for the bombing itself.
Linden is about 5 kilometers from the town of Elizabeth, where on Sunday police were alerted to a backpack containing several explosive devices, one of which detonated as a robot tried to defuse it. That discovery was made close to the Rahami restaurant.
Authorities also suspect Rahami was behind an explosion in a trash can at a charity foot race early Saturday in Seaside Park, New Jersey, about 130 kilometers south of New York. No one was hurt in that blast.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Rahami is the only suspect, and there is every reason to believe the bombings were acts of terrorism.
President Barack Obama, who was in New York along with other world leaders for the United Nations General Assembly, said terrorists want to hurt innocent people, inspire fear and disrupt the way people live.
"We have to be vigilant and aggressive, both on preventing senseless acts of violence but also making sure that we find those who carry out such acts and bring them to justice," Obama said. "We all have a role to play as citizens in making sure that we don't succumb to that fear."
One New Yorker told VOA the bombing was unsettling, but not surprising.
"There is a security to this city," the resident said. "Sure, there are days where I have my doubts about that, but because I do feel this camaraderie in the city, I do feel relatively safe."
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