In 2014, years before the recent bombs in New York and New Jersey, the father of suspected bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami told the FBI that his son was a terrorist.
The New York Timesreports that Mohammad Rahami, who owns a restaurant in Elizabeth, N.J., contacted the FBI in 2014 after his son, Ahmad Khan Rahami, had allegedly fought and stabbed his brother. Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested for the alleged stabbing and spent three months in jail; however, a grand jury did not indict Rahami, because the "allegations were recanted."
Rahami's comment about his son being a terrorist was investigated by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. At the time, according to the New York Times, "Officers opened what is known as an assessment, the most basic of FBI investigations, and interviewed the father, who then recanted." The FBI concluded that Ahmad Khan Rahami had no ties to terrorism at the time, and the father's comment was dismissed as being made out of anger. Mohammad Rahami had retracted the statement and meant that his son was simply "hanging out with the wrong crowd, including gangs," the Guardianreports. He told reporters on Tuesday that his son was "doing bad" at the time and had recently hit his stepmother.
The elder Rahami told the New York Times, "Two years ago I go to the FBI because my son was doing really bad, O.K.? But they check almost two months, they say, 'He’s O.K., he's clean, he’s not a terrorist.' I say O.K." Then he added, "Now they say he is a terrorist. I say O.K."
