Apparently, when the FBI took Ahmad Khan Rahami into custody on Monday morning, it was apparently not their first encounter with the suspected bomber. According to Ahmad’s father, he told federal law enforcement that his son was a terrorist two years ago.
The tense and alarming bombings around New Jersey and New York over the past few days have brought a worldwide spotlight on Ahmad Khan Rahami, suspected to be the main culprit behind the attacks. In a brief interview on Tuesday outside the family’s restaurant in Elizabeth, Mohammad Rahami told the story of how he informed agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that his son was a terrorist. Authorities arrived at the Rahami residence after Ahmad stabbed his brother, where he talked to agents during the criminal investigation.
“Two years ago I go to the F.B.I. because my son was doing really bad, O.K.?” he said as he shook two fingers in the air. “But they check almost two months, they say, ‘He’s O.K., he’s clean, he’s not a terrorist.’ I say O.K.”
He added, “Now they say he is a terrorist. I say O.K.”
A reporter asked him, “Do you think your son is a terrorist?”
He responded by saying, “No, and the F.B.I., they know that.”
Ahmad was arrested after a domestic dispute and accused of stabbing his brother. He spent over three months in jail on the assault charges.
Mohammad’s testimony was forwarded to the Joint Terrorism Task Force led by Federal Bureau of Investigation in Newark. Officers opened what is known as an assessment, the most basic of F.B.I. investigations, and interviewed the father, who then reversed on his allegations that his son was a terrorist. The father said he made the comment out of anger at his son.
He probably got a really shitty Father’s Day gift that year.