Known Wolf: NYC Bombing Suspect Probed by FBI, Leading to Big Questions

Shawn Helton
21st Century Wire

The New York bombing attack has a list of details that don’t add up.

When examining what transpired this past week in New York and New Jersey, we must consider a deeper social engineering agenda that may be at play as a larger geopolitical drama continues unfold in Syria. While August ushered in a hyper-propagandized war image that went viral in the West, an alleged active-shooter ‘false alarm’ played out at both JFK airport and LAX in early September, preceded the apparent bombing in NYC this week.

You have to wonder, were the events in New York and New Jersey also a weapon of mass distraction, following a brutal airstrike campaign in Syria that killed Syrian troops?

The alleged NYC bombing suspect was named as 28 year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami. He has been charged with using ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in addition to other criminal charges. Similar to what was described in the apparent Boston Marathon Bombing of 2013, Rahami is alleged to have created a homemade pressure cooker bomb which exploded in Chelsea, an affluent neighborhood of Manhattan.

Oddly missing are scenes depicting the transport of 31 injured individuals after the explosion in New York.

‘BOMBER OR PATSY?’ –  Ahmad Khan Rahami was known to both US officials and Pakistani officials. (Image Source: BBC)

NYC’s Known Wolf 

After the mainstream media and officials floated the idea that a ‘Wireless Emergency Alerts’ system found Rahami with an “electronic wanted poster,” it turns out the FBI already knew him.

According to The Washington Post, the FBI had already known Rahami since 2014. Making this latest ‘known wolf’ attack a strongly suspicious event:

“The FBI’s probe into Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old named as the only suspect in the bombings, was launched based on comments his father had made. An official said his father later recanted his comments. Agents conducted interviews, checked with other agencies and looked at internal databases, “none of which revealed ties to terrorism,” the bureau said in a statement.

But why then, was Rahami on the radar of Pakistani intelligence in recent years?

During the San Bernardino caper last December, we were told that supposedly Pakistani-born Tashfeen Malik, had ties to The Red Mosque in Pakistan, a well-known Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) linked mosque:

“Sources have told Daily Mail Online that US officials handed over information to their Pakistani counterparts about links between Tashfeen Malik and the Red Mosque in Islamabad. The mosque is infamous for its links to violence and authorities in Pakistan are now considering taking action against its preacher, Maulana Abdul Aziz, after the disclosures by US officials.”

If Malik was inspired by ISIS, as claimed by authorities (via social media) then why did her background suggest a Pakistani/ISI/CIA/Al-Qaeda connection, if she was in fact radicalized’ as US plot writers insist?

The UK’s Telegraph stated that the part of Pakistan where Malik was staying is “known as a recruiting ground for Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups, including Lashkar al-Taiba, responsible for a bloody attack in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, in 2008.”

If true, this was a new twist in the media hyped San Bernardino shooting, displaying a startling link between the Al Qaeda/ISI affiliated Red Mosque and other Western-backed black ops in Pakistan.

In May of 2011, The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) outlined the ISI’s material support for various militant groups, including the formation of Al-Qaeda – giving historical context to recent events:

“The ISI’s first major involvement in Afghanistan came after the Soviet invasion in 1979, when itpartnered with the CIA to provide weapons, money, intelligence, and training to the mujahadeen fighting the Red Army.”

The CFR further stated, “Pakistan’s government has repeatedly denied allegations of supporting terrorism, citing as evidence its cooperation in the U.S.-led battle against extremists.”

The CIA and ISI, have had a long, sometimes contentious relationship on the surface but the reality is that their collective footprint, is all over many tribal areas in Pakistan and places like Afghanistan – where extremism continues to grow to this day.

Malik’s affiliations suggested that she could have been involved with one of the intelligence agencies active in the exact location she resided in Pakistan – was this also the case with Rahami, given his link to a Pakistani seminary with ties to the Taliban?

The UK’s Guardian reported the following:

“The 28-year-old, who was born in Afghanistan but became a US citizen, spent time at the Kaan Kuwa Naqshbandi madrasa on his two visits to Pakistan, a security official working for the government of Balochistan province told the Guardian.”

Cointinuing, the article discussed how Pakistani officials have limited the information they have about Rahami:

“US officials have revealed basic details about Rahami’s two visits to Pakistan, the first in 2011 when he spent a couple of months in Quetta and got married and almost a year in 2013 when he also made a car journey to Afghanistan.

But very little information has emerged from inside Pakistan about what Rahami did during his visits.

The government official, who did not wish to be named because he was speaking about a highly sensitive subject, said Pakistani security agencies have tried to “hide all the details of his visits to Quetta” and keep as much information as possible out of the media.”

‘INFORMANT OR TERRORIST?’ – What was Rahami’s real role in the New York and New Jersey bombings and bomb attempts? (Image Source: nbcnews)

‘Sturm und Drang’

During a hotly contested US presidential election cycle, multiple overlapping narratives continue to contribute to an environment of confusion, fear and uncertainty in the War On Terror era.

Mass media has worked out their own formula for laying out a familiar series of polarizing political points in the aftermath of any ‘tragic’ event, as they have with many others. Appearing once again, to purposefully redirect the public to look at a ready-made laundry list of hateful rhetoric and random writings as an ironclad motive for a crime. The aftermath in the case of New York is no different, as it rapidly descended into an overindulgent barrage of media speculation and theorizing.

All too often we’ve seen the ‘stage persona’ of any alleged attacker or killer being touted as hard evidence, despite the fact that even strong circumstantial evidence of any apparent crime would likely result in many hours of analysis and debate, potentially without a definitive conclusion, even if the evidence eventually reached a court room setting.

As 21WIRE has covered in recent years, very often there is much more involved behind-the-scenes when it comes to sensationalized attacks in America, particularly of those said to be ‘lone wolf’ events. The incidents themselves are quickly taken out of the political and forensic realm, giving way to a hyper-realized account, often defying logic and reason.

Drills, Patsies & Dupes

In May of 2015, the NY Post stated the following, after the city’s largest ever terror drill involved mock explosions:

“Officials said the event was the largest “active-shooter” operation ever, involving more than 200 NYPD and FDNY officers.

It was the ninth full-scale exercise of its kind since the beginning of 2014. Chief of NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau James Waters explained that the drill replicated portions of events that occurred in San Bernadino, in the Bataclan in Paris and in Australia.”

Continuing, the article described the intricate mass exercise:

“On the third and the fourth floors we had additional explosions go off, replicating things that happened at the Bataclan nightclub, and that pushed the ESU officers up to the third floor, and finally the fourth floor, where they encountered a barricade with a hostage situation,” he said, explaining that the cops again were able to stop the shooters.”

For the average person, its hard to differentiate from a drill or a real event, causing one to scrutinize the legitimacy of such an operation.

In recent years, the investigative tactics of various intelligence agencies have come into question, none perhaps more dubious then the Newburgh FBI sting that involved entrapping four men to participate in an a fabricated event created by the bureau. Here’s a 2011 passage from The Guardian describing how an FBI informant named Shahed Hussain coerced four others into a fake terror plot:

“The “Newburgh Four” now languish in jail. Hussain does not. For Hussain was a fake. In fact, Hussain worked for the FBI as an informant trawling mosques in hope of picking up radicals.

Yet far from being active militants, the four men he attracted were impoverished individuals struggling with Newburgh’s grim epidemic of crack, drug crime and poverty. One had mental issues so severe his apartment contained bottles of his own urine. He also believed Florida was a foreign country.

Hussain offered the men huge financial inducements to carry out the plot – including $250,000 to one man – and free holidays and expensive cars.

As defence lawyers poured through the evidence, the Newburgh Four came to represent the most extreme form of a controversial FBI policy to use invented terrorist plots to lure targets. “There has been no case as egregious as this. It is unique in the incentive the government provided. A quarter million dollars?” said Professor Karen Greenberg, a terrorism expert at Fordham University.”

The whole episode seemed born out WTC 1993 bombing case, which involved yet another informant working alongside officials.

More below regarding the purported NYC bombing from ZeroHedge…

NYC UNDER ATTACK? – In less than 48 hours law enforcement nabbed the man purportedly behind the recent NYC bombings. (Image Source: observer)

9 Weird Things About The NYC And NJ Bombs That Will Make You Say Hmmmm…

From Zero Hedge

1. First, nobody died. Don’t get me wrong. I’m totally thrilled about that, but you have to ask yourself why? With 29 people injured there were obviously a fair number of people around. Yet everyone was well enough to be discharged from the hospital within hours of the blast. Was the bomb just positioned badly? Or was it designed to cause injury, but not too much injury?
2.  
3. They sure found the mystery bomber quickly and efficiently. The last time I had to deal with the federal government, I ended up in an endless loop of phone transfers, when no one could figure out the right person to send me to. But they brought their game to a whole new level of efficiency with this that makes you wonder how anyone ever gets away with anything. The bomb fragments and the unexploded pressure cooker were examined and analysed, a fingerprint was found, a match to the print was located on the system, and Ahmed Khan Rahami was identified. Then, the posters were produced, he was located due to a member of the public spotting him, and was then captured. All within 40 hours of the bomb blast and even though he was not on a terror watch list or flagged as a possible terrorist. Fast work.
4. Although experts say this type of thing is usually a group activity, no other persons of interest are being sought. Experts say that the chances of Rahami NOT having assistance with logistics, etc., was “infinitesimally small.” Mike Rogers, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said, “Normally the way this works, you have a cell doing logistics, bomb-making and assembly, and an operational one.”  Despite all of this, the New York Police Department said they are not actively looking for anyone else in connection with the incidents. (source)
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6. The culprit was just hanging around, asleep in a doorway like a homeless person, waiting to get busted. Rahami was spotted sleeping in a shop doorway and police were called. He shot at an officer and then ambled off down the street, shooting at a police car before being wounded and taken into custody. Now, I have two major issues with this. What kind of terrorist decides to curl up and take a nap in a shop doorway in an area he knows the police will be looking for him? Secondly, we all know the police have hair triggers…children get shot for holding a BB gun, the caregiver of an autistic man got shot while laying down,  and an unarmed drivers got shot in front of his kid…but this guy sets off bombs, shoots two officers, shoots up a police car, and then wanders down the road holding a gun and he only gets wounded in the shootout?
7.  
8. The placement of these bombs wasn’t very strategic. Usually, someone who sets off random bombs in the name of terror wants to do as much damage and inflict as much fear as possible. If these attacks were designed to maim and kill, why not plant a bomb when there are crowds of people around? When you are less likely to be singled out by CCTV walking alone at night shortly before the device explodes? It makes no sense does it? Terrorist attacks invariably aim for maximum impact with minimum risk. This was a complete reversal of that M.O.
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10. ISIS wants nothing to do with this one. The Minnesota stabbings that took place on the same day have been claimed by the Islamic State as an act committed by  ‘a soldier of the Islamic State’. There have been no claims at all that Rahami has links to ISIS.
11.  
12. It wasn’t a very good bomb. The backpack with five bombs inside was found in a wastebasket around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday outside a neighborhood pub in Elizabeth, about 16 miles from New York City. Two men found the backpack about 500 feet from a train trestle and alerted police, officials said. (source). One of those bombs exploded as a police robot tried to defuse it, yet the others didn’t. That must have been one very lame bomb if it couldn’t even blow up or trigger the others packed into the same bag, so the remaining four also blew up.
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14. Somehow, the bomber didn’t really raise any eyebrows until now. Rahami was known to have travelled to Afghanistan, his home country, and also to Pakistan. This was known because he applied in 2011 to bring his Pakistani wife into the United States and the application was approved in 2012. So an Afghan national with a police record for trying to stab his sister-in-law travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan spending months at a time there and it never raised a glance from any agency anywhere?  The TSA was satisfied he was visiting family. Obviously too busy harassingcancer patients . Despite all of that, there was no real suspicion about this guy until he was suddenly a major terrorist.
15.  
16. What do we need to be distracted from? This always has to be the question when these situations take over the news. And the list is long, my friends. This freakshow of an election, the fact that Russia is accusing the US of starting WW3 in Syria, the upgraded effort to take away guns and personal medical decisions, the newest Wikileaks…we could go on and on about the things no one wants us paying attention to.

Zero Hedge continues…

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