begin quote from:
The
wife and mother of the Afghan immigrant suspected in the New York and
New Jersey bombings left the US for the Middle East just a few days
before the attacks, according to reports. Ahmad …
Chelsea bombing suspect’s wife and mother left US days before attack
Ahmad Khan Rahami’s wife, Asia Bibi Rahami, has been intercepted by authorities in the United Arab Emirates after leaving the US for Pakistan, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Officials are working with authorities in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates to question her about what she knew about her husband’s plans, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Rahami’s mother, Najiba Rahami, left for Turkey three weeks before the attacks and has not yet returned to the US, a US official to ABC News.
Rahami, a naturalized US citizen, made at least three months-long trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan since 2014, officials said.
He stayed in Pakistan for a year between April 2013 and March 2014, spending time in a Taliban stronghold, CNN reported.
Rahami has clammed up and is refusing to cooperate with authorities, a source told The Post.
“We are looking into who may have helped him in training, with money” and with other means, the source said. “His family is being looked at, too.”
FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney said there was “no indication” of an active terror cell in the New York area — but evidence suggests Rahami was not acting alone, sources told CNN.
“They’re going to look at friends, family, go through all of his records and social media, his phones and we’ll see if he acted alone,” New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said Tuesday morning on CBS’ “This Morning.”
Authorities identified Rahami through a fingerprint lifted from an unexploded bomb and tracked him down to Linden, New Jersey, where cops exchanged gunfire with the suspect Monday morning.
Two officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the shootout, in which Rahami also was injured.
“I think it’s a good sign that we found him in a doorway… hopefully that means he had nowhere to go so that’s a pretty good sign,” O’Neill said about Rahami, who was found snoozing outside Merdie’s Tavern in Linden.
Rahami – who was charged with five counts of attempted murder — was listed in critical but stable condition after being shot in the leg, O’Neill said.
“Medically, I think there are some issues. But we will get a chance to talk to him,” he said.
O’Neill said the bombing had all the hallmarks of “an act of terror.”
“I went to the scene on Saturday night after I got the phone call from one of my sergeants and the devastation was tremendous,” he told CBS. “You get a call to come down to the scene. You go down there and don’t know what to expect… I think we’re really lucky that only 29 people received not-serious injuries.”
The top cop said authorities are looking into how the pressure-cooker bombs – containing the highly explosive and unstable compound HMTD – were constructed.
“I don’t want to go into the level of sophistication,” he added. “There’s a lot of forensic evidence that we found.”
Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) said Tuesday that Rahami and his father contacted his office in 2013 and 2014 to inquire about the status of Asia Bibi Rahami’s expired passport.
In March 2014, Ahmad sent an email to Sires’ congressional website from Pakistan asking about the delay in getting her a new passport, Sires said. At the time, Asia – who was 35 weeks pregnant — also was in Pakistan, where she was stuck without a visa to enter the US.
Sires said Ahmad also stopped by his Elizabeth office, where the “abrupt” man asked the congressman’s staff to deliver a letter to Islamabad, but he was refused.
“They told her that she could not come over until she had the baby, because she had to get a visa for the baby,” Sires told MSNBC on Monday.
She was eventually granted a visa and allowed to enter the US.
Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday morning that investigators are seeking to ensure that no one else was involved in Rahami’s alleged bombings.
“Was there anyone working with him? We just want to make sure there are no other associates of this man that could be a potential threat,” Cuomo told CNN.
Cuomo also reacted to Donald Trump’s complaints about Rahami’s medical care. The Republican presidential nominee said sarcastically during a campaign rally in Florida that “we will give him amazing hospitalization.”
“This is what makes us who we are, that’s what makes us special and if you give that up … then you have defeated yourself,” Cuomo told CNN. “That is the code of democracy and freedom. That is what they resent about us. So don’t lose your soul in the process — that is the soul of America.”
David K. Li and Post Wire Services
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