Between the father of a jihad terrorist and the FBI, it’s hard to know whom to believe. If the father is telling the truth, the FBI has good reason to lie about it, for otherwise it will be exposed as incompetent and Obama’s policies of denial of the jihad threat will be exposed as having lethal consequences. But the father may also be lying, possibly so as to cover up his knowledge of his son’s jihad plot. He and his son lived in the same house. Could Mohammad Rahami really not have noticed all the bomb-making paraphernalia around?
“‘Keep an Eye on Him,’ Ahmad Khan Rahami’s Father Says He Told F.B.I.,” by Marc Santora, Pir Zubair Shah, Joseph Goldstein and Adam Goldman, New York Times, September 22, 2016:
The father of the man accused of carrying out bombings last weekend in New York and New Jersey said that, two years ago, he warned federal agents explicitly about his son’s interest in terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and his fascination with jihadist music, poetry and videos.
In a series of interviews with The New York Times on Wednesday and Thursday, Mohammad Rahami, whose son Ahmad Khan Rahami has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use, recounted his interactions with the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he raised his concerns about his son.
While Mr. Rahami has spoken briefly about his contact with the F.B.I., the interviews this week provided his most detailed public account so far.
His description of that contact differs starkly from the one given by law enforcement officials, who on Thursday challenged the father’s account, saying he did not provide the F.B.I. with many of the details about his son that he now says he did.
Mr. Rahami’s contact with the authorities began in August 2014, when the local police in Elizabeth, N.J., responded to the family’s home after a domestic dispute in which Ahmad stabbed his brother, according to court records.
Law enforcement officials familiar with the case who would discuss it only on the condition of anonymity said that Mr. Rahami called his son a “terrorist” when talking to local police, which led to the F.B.I.’s involvement.
Mr. Rahami said that during the course of the investigation he told agents from the bureau everything he knew about his son’s activities.
“I told the F.B.I. to keep an eye on him,” he said. “They said, ‘Is he a terrorist?’ I said: ‘I don’t know. I can’t guarantee you 100 percent if he is a terrorist. I don’t know which groups he is in. I can’t tell you.’”
But he said he had laid out his concerns, specifically related to what he described as his son’s emerging infatuation with Islamic extremism.
“The way he speaks, his videos, when I see these things that he listens to, for example, Al Qaeda, Taliban, he watches their videos, their poetry,” he said he told the federal agents.
In the interviews, the elder Mr. Rahami spoke about his son’s admiration of Anwar al-Awlaki, who was once Al Qaeda’s leading propagandist and is popular with followers of the Islamic State, and also recalled that his son watched Mr. Awlaki’s videos.
The F.B.I., in a statement earlier this week, said it had conducted an assessment of Ahmad Rahami that included interviews with his father, a review of bureau databases and public records, and checks with other agencies. The assessment did not turn up anything that warranted further inquiry, and the matter was closed, the agency said.
A senior law enforcement official familiar with the assessment said that “During its assessment on Ahmad Rahami, the F.B.I. initiated contact with his father, who had expressed concern over his son’s internet use as well as some of his associates. Ahmad Rahami’s travel revealed no information that tied him to terrorism”
“At no time,” the official said, “did the father advise interviewing agents of any radicalization or alleged links to Al Qaeda, the Taliban or their propaganda. Furthermore, database and interagency checks, to include reviews of Ahmad Rahami’s travel, revealed no information that tied him to terrorism.”
When agents first interviewed the elder Mr. Rahami on Aug. 26, they asked him about his comments to the local police, according to some of the officials.
The father told them that he was referring to gangsters and criminals, not terrorists, the officials said.
But Mr. Rahami’s father told the F.B.I. that he had walked by his son’s room and observed him watching a YouTube video of explosions, the officials said. It was unclear what kind of explosions were in the video.
On Sept. 12, 2014, the F.B.I. returned and told the father that his son had been cleared of any connection to terrorism, and on Sept. 19, the review was formally closed. The father said he was not surprised by the F.B.I.’s findings. He repeated that his son was not a terrorist but had been hanging out with “bad people,” officials said.
When told on Thursday that law enforcement officials contradicted his version of events, he said, “It’s a lie,” and that he stood by his account.
Law enforcement officials said that investigators did not interview Ahmad Rahami because he was in jail when the F.B.I. was conducting its review. If he was represented by a lawyer, agents would have had to request an interview through the lawyer. It is unknown whether such a request was made, and it is far from certain that a lawyer would have agreed. By the time Ahmad Rahami was released from jail, the F.B.I. had concluded its review.
“They didn’t do their job,” his father said in one of the interviews with The Times, which were conducted in his native language, Pashto.
John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism for the New York Police Department, outlined the challenges facing agents as they investigate such cases — especially given the number of people they look into and the threshold that must be met to take action.
“If you have that many contacts with that many people over that period of time, it’s increasingly likely that the next time something happens, it’s going to involve somebody that you knew, heard about, investigated, bumped or otherwise checked out,” Mr. Miller said on Wednesday at a congressional hearing about the bombings. “Now, that’s a good thing in that, when you’re assessing who to look at first and they come up in those records, it gives you a basis to go forward. It’s also a liability in that people have somewhat of a misconception about our ability to put someone under surveillance, leave them there indefinitely.”
The F.B.I.’s assessment of Ahmad Rahami was the second time he had to the attention of the federal authorities.
Five months earlier, in March 2014, when he returned from a nearly yearlong trip to Pakistan, Mr. Rahami was flagged by customs officials, who pulled him aside for a secondary screening. Still concerned about his travel, officials notified the National Targeting Center, a federal agency that assesses potential threats, two law enforcement officials said.
That report was reviewed by the F.B.I. when it conducted its assessment of Mr. Rahami in August….
“His travels give us these two distinct choices, both of which are bad,” said a senior counterterrorism official, explaining that a trip that Mr. Rahami took to Turkey raised the possibility that he crossed the border to Syria and met there with operatives from the Islamic State, while his travel to Pakistan raises the possibility that he had contact with Al Qaeda.
The official said that some investigators involved in the case believe that the variety of explosive devices Mr. Rahami is suspected of constructing suggested that he did have some bomb-making training beyond reading instruction manuals online.
Mr. Rahami is accused of building 10 bombs. One exploded in Lower Manhattan, injuring 31 people; another exploded in Seaside Park, N.J., but no one was injured. Five were discovered on Sunday night outside a train station in Elizabeth, N.J.
“Most guys who go on the internet make one type of bomb,” the official said. “Here’s a guy who did two types of pressure cooker bombs and two different kinds of pipe bombs,” he added. “It suggests to us that he didn’t just look up ‘Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,’” the official said, referring to an instruction manual published in the Al Qaeda online magazine Inspire, “but that he might have been somewhere and learned to make this stuff.”
A notebook recovered from Mr. Rahami after he was shot and taken into custody by the police in New Jersey suggests that he took much of his inspiration from the Islamic State and one of their founders, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani — who recently called on Muslims around the world to spill the blood of Westerners and nonbelievers wherever they found them. Mr. Adnani was killed in an American drone strike in August.
While much of the writing in the journal is illegible because the book was punctured by a bullet and splattered with blood, what can be read indicates that Mr. Rahami may himself have been frustrated in his attempts to reach Syria and was using that as justification for committing terror at home.
One page has the word “blocked,” followed by: “You should have let us meet death overseas.”…
After the 2014 dispute, he said, he visited his son in jail.
Ahmad Rahami asked his father for forgiveness, but he said he would not forgive his son until he was sure that Ahmad was not a terrorist and that the F.B.I. had cleared him.
“The F.B.I. came back to me and said he’s clean,” Mohammad Rahami said. “They didn’t find anything on him. But they didn’t interview him.”
“I still had my doubts,” he said. “I was never 100 percent clear.”
At that point, he said, he decided not to pursue the charges stemming from the domestic dispute. Court records show that a grand jury declined to indict Ahmad Rahami on the charges.
The father said he believed he did his duty by sharing his concerns with law enforcement. “What was required of me, I did,” he said. “And he’s not a kid — he’s 28 years old.”

Walter Sieruk says
It’s a strange but common phenomena in America’s modern PC culture that when it comes to Islamic terrorism there are many people who are afraid to call it what it is. That’s odd because no one is afraid to call a person who engages in violence for anarchy and “anarchist terrorist”. Nor are people afraid to call a Marxist who engages in violence for the ideology of communism a “Communist terrorist.” Likewise, a person who commits violence for Environmentalism an “Environmentalist terrorists. “Nevertheless, when it comes to a Muslim terrorist who engages in deadly violence because of the theology and ideology of Islam, many people fear to call that person an “Islamic terrorists.” Strange but true.
Hector Archytas says
In America, religion is Holy. In France, we haven’t this problem. Religions don’t have a good press even if they are tolerate.
Thus, a religion advocating the genocide of most of humanities don’t rely surprise us.
Linde Barrera says
“He’s not a kid anymore, he’s 28” quoted the father. Why then was this 28 year old not living on his own? Why then didn’t this father say to his son “We are peaceful Muslims. We don’t hurt anybody, even the infidels.” In my opinion, this father is just “c.h.a.” or covering his you-know-what. ?
Dan says
Funny thing is, there was a similar story about the Roosevelt administration on Glenn Beck the other day.
Roosevelt was told one of his speeches, maybe the “Day in Infamy” one, was so inspiring it should be bound in a pamphlet and shipped out with every G.I.
Turns out the guy doing the job was REAL shady, using the pamphlets as some kind of currency/barter because copies of such speeches were normally only made for the small number of people involved in it.
A woman reported Shady in repeated letters to Roosevelt’s admin, and while they repeatedly denied saved “in” governmental correspondences showed they were telling all departments to burn anything linking them to Shady and deny, deny, deny
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Emilie Green says
“Could Mohammad Rahami really not have noticed all the bomb-making paraphernalia around?’
“No, Dad, all that stuff is for my model train layout.”
Alessandro says
Or maybe he was making a simple CLOCK!!!
Beagle says
It is ludicrous to suggest any informant must conduct a more thorough investigation of any alleged offender. In a sane world, obviously not this one, it would be apparent to all that this is another example of law enforcement refusing, or being unable to properly investigate a known wolf jihadi due to the Obama Administration censoring any accurate training materials pertaining to jihad and lying about such motives after the fact.
Angemon says
If I remember correctly, early reports on this issue stated that the father ended up retracting his accusations. While the FBI may be trying to save face and the father can be pre-emptively trying to clear himself from suspicions, what are the odds the father actually told the FBI about it AND his statements made it to an FBI agent called Muhammad ibn Mohamud, or something similar, and were dismissed with prejudice, never to be seen again?
Caliph says
The purpose of “Terrorism” as defined, is to cause the public to distrust and lose faith in their government.
At this point it does not matter if Papa-jihadi really spoke to the FBI or not, he has already caused suspicion that he did and thus “suggests” that the FBI did not heed his warning. This terrorist has already done his job.
BringBackTheCrusades says
Undeniable facts:
1. The jihadi stabbed his own brother before the FBI investigation;
2. The father called the jihadi a terrorist to local officials;
3. As with the Tsarnaev’s, the FBI FAILED to protect the US citizens from an obvious Jihadi;
4. Multiple types of bombs have been discovered in NY and NJ.
5. Two ‘witnesses’ removed the bomb from at least one of the jihadi’s bag.
Key Question:
1. Where are the two ‘witnesses’???
Ashley says
Key Question:
1. Where are the two ‘witnesses’???
___________________
This troubles me as well. Who the hell removes an explosive device to steal a cheap piece of luggage/tote bag?
I suspect these “witnesses” knew EXACTLY what they were doing.
Unattended luggage on a NYC street is cause for concern and usually involves nearby evacuations, a bomb squad, and a robot to safely detonate the suspicious object. Find a wallet…hell, go for it. Luggage with an IED…no thanks.
These two men were accomplices.
JawsV says
Sad to say, but the Feds are such Keystone Kops regarding Islam and Muslims that I can’t automatically believe them.
Ashley says
Mohammad Rahami is full of shit and should be charged as an accomplice.
RCCA says
Omar Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, blamed the Pulse nightclub for not stopping his son. Blame is always put onto someone else, can’t be the fault of Muslims or Islam.
Ashley says
Good point.
I maintain Rahami concocted or embellished this tale of reporting his son to the FBI.
The entire family is neck-deep in supporting jihad…
abad says
The entire Rahami family should be deported back to Afghanistan.
robm says
Koranderthals…….aka Barrys…Civilian Police Force……..Raid the Mosques (arsenals) now
Sam says
Muslims lie, FBI lies, Hillary Lies, Obama lives in the La La land. Islam kills.
I dont believe the father, I woul not trust FBI. If I suspect a Muslim terror attempt, I dont know who to report to. As i do not trust FBI at all.
Carolyne says
If you report it, you might be investigated by the DOJ and sued for $10 million as were the police, school and teacher in the “Clock boy” hoax. Until the government assures me that I will not be investigated by the DOJ and that I will be immune from lawsuits, I will think twice and then again before I reported anything.
Sharki Bark says
Where is the mother? If she is at home covered up and not allowed to speak to the media I call definite BS on the dad.
Ashley says
http://nypost.com/2016/09/24/heres-proof-that-nyc-bomber-ahmad-rahami-is-no-lone-wolf/
garegin says
Well. Honestly I believe the father, because he has less reasons to lie. A story that his son is a sweet angel who played video games and ate pizza is a better lie than saying that he knew that he had terrorist sympathies.
The FBI has every reason to lie
RCCA says
Not really possible. He reported his jihadi son to the local police for stabbing another son in the leg.
Eric Jones says
Mateen father and son, Rahami father and son. I see a pattern here. Both families are from Afganistan. The second generation does not assimilate.
The son Rahami stabs his own brother and hits his Mom? Wow! No red flags!. Move along . Nothing to see here. I think father Rahami should be a person of interest and deserves further watching.
Eric
Carolyne says
And you see no pattern with the FBI?
Paul Clark says
For Walter Sieruk
Amen.
Paul Clark says
For Ashley:
I agree, but you could have left out the four letter word and have been just as persuasive if not more. You can reach a bigger audience and….
Jay Boo says
Paul Clark is now posing as “the voice of reason” here.
Like a virus lying in wait in ‘dormancy’
The only thing worse than a troll is a clever troll.
Ashley says
LOL, Jay Boo. I personally don’t find Paul Clark a particularly “clever troll.”
Not unlike the Muslim trolls on this site, Mr. Clark is trying to push his own agenda on others here at JW.
Mr. Clark. I’m sorry if my potty-mouth offends you (or anyone else here). It is merely how I often express myself.
I understand from your previous comments on other threads that prayer will overcome this “technical issue” of Islamic terror. Although I take no issue with your approach, I disagree. It takes more than prayer.
Go in peace. And may I suggest you seek out a forum that is more suitable to you.
DP111 says
Muslims can lie with a straight face, with no guilt conscience, as the Koran absolves them for lying to the Kuffar.