This is how the Chelsea bombing suspect slipped through U.S. intelligence's fingers
The man accused of injuring over two dozen people in a New York City bombing and placing multiple other explosive devices at sites in New York and New Jersey last weekend was on the FBI's radar, although multiple suspicions failed to compel them to bring him in for an interview, The New York Times reports.
Returning from almost a year in Pakistan in March 2014, customs officials flagged Ahmad Khan Rahami for a secondary screening and notified the National Targeting Center, which assesses possible threats, of his arrival. Still, nothing came of it at the time. Then just five months later, Rahami's father told the police he was worried his son "was a terrorist," but later retracted the comment, with a Joint Terrorism Task Force official explaining "the father made the comment out of anger at his son." Still, despite having been flagged twice in less than six months for a closer look, federal agents did not interview Rahami.
An Afghanistan-born U.S. citizen, Rahami, 28, is suspected of having been radicalized abroad; a notebook found on his person at the time of his arrest is filled with Islamic State-influenced writings. Investigators are also looking at a three-week trip he took to Afghanistan, and another he is believed to have taken to Ankara, Turkey, in January 2014.
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Rahami has been charged with "attempted murder" and "use of weapons of mass destruction," among other charges.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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