New Jersey & New York bombs

[robert99]

New Jersey charity race cancelled after pipe bomb blast - BBC News
A pipe bomb has exploded on the route of a road race in the US state of New Jersey, forcing the event to be cancelled but causing no injuries.

The bomb had been placed in a rubbish bin along the route of the 5km Semper Five run in Seaside Park.

The participants would have been in the area but the race had been delayed because of an unattended bag.
NBC reported that a second device had been found. Ocean County sheriffs said that 30 homes near the site of the explosion were evacuated.

New Jersey State Police later said that no further explosive devices had been found, although officers "rendered safe" items in another rubbish bin, without giving further details.
New York City: At least 29 wounded in explosion - BBC News
At least 29 people have been injured in an explosion in the Chelsea district of New York City, officials say.

The cause of the blast late on Saturday remains unclear. Mayor Bill de Blasio described it as "intentional" but said that there were no known terror links.

Officials later told media that a device was found at a second location a few blocks away.

Unconfirmed reports said the blast went off in a dustbin, shattering windows in a nearby building. Several blocks have been closed down by police.

An unnamed law enforcement official told the Associated Press news agency that the device at the second Chelsea location appeared to be a pressure cooker attached to wiring and a mobile phone.

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/nyregion/chelsea-explosion-new-york-city.html

Officials said the New York explosion was connected to a blast 11 hours after an improvised device exploded in a garbage can near the course of a charity race that was about to begin in a small town on the Jersey Shore. That device went off around 9:30 a.m. near the boardwalk in Seaside Park, N.J., according to the Ocean County sheriff, Michael G. Mastronardy.

 

[robert99]

Pipe bomb explodes along Jersey Shore charity 5K racecourse, officials say
“Out of extreme precaution, this year’s Seaside Semper Five has been canceled due to an unidentified suspicious backpack found at the race site,” read a statement on the race website.
Authorities are investigating a pipe bomb that exploded in a Jersey Shore garbage can Saturday morning, shortly before hundreds of people were expected to run through the area in a charity race benefiting Marines and Navy sailors.

The blast occurred about 9:35 a.m. near the boardwalk in Seaside Park, along the route of the Seaside Semper Five Marine Corps Charity 5K, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office

 

[robert99]

No suspect in custody after Seaside Park explosion
No suspect in custody after Seaside Park explosion
Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's office, said, "this does not appear to be a prank."

The explosion occurred around 9:30 a.m. in a trash can along the route of the Seaside Semper Fi 5K run, which was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. The event did not start on time, Cohen said.

The timing of the explosion and where the device had been placed makes it appear "somebody has a beef with the military," Della Fave said.

"It was a Marine-related event. The close proximity; it's someone who has a beef with the Marines," he said.

The incident remains an active investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, said Brad Cohen, the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Newark.

"We're making sure there is no stone left unturned," Cohen said at a press conference outside the Seaside Park Police Department's headquarters.
29 injured in New York City explosion, officials say
A "possible secondary device" was discovered on West 27th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, the NYPD's Special Operations Division said on Twitter late Saturday.

A law enforcement source told The Associated Press the item on West 27th Street appeared to be a pressure cooker with wires and a cell phone attached inside a plastic bag. It was unclear what led police to the item, four blocks from the explosion scene.

 

[KLS52]

I'm trying to watch this on my tv in the bedroom and for some odd reason, I suddenly have no sound. What the flip. Thanks for the links.

 

[Moll Flanders]

Scary. I heard that Mayor Bill de Blasio said that there was no specific terrorist threat at the moment.

 

[robert99]

What with the stabbings in Minnesota http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/l...ral-hurt-crossroads-center-incident/90607870/ it's been an eventful evening in the States.

New York bomb was 'act of terrorism', says Governor Cuomo - BBC News
A bomb that exploded in New York City was an act of terrorism, Governor Andrew Cuomo says, but no link to international groups has been found.

Mr Cuomo said significant damage had been caused and "we were lucky there were no fatalities". Saturday night's blast in Manhattan injured 29 people.

Some 1,000 extra security personnel are being deployed to transport hubs.
(Good times for security companies ...)
(Who the h**l built these bombs was so incompetent that 1 went off in New York, 1 partially went off in New Jersey and 2 were only good as paperweights. This is like the 1993 attempt on the WTC when the FBI had to tell the terrorists how to build a bomb see - Tapes in Bombing Plot Show Informer and F.B.I. at Odds

 

[robert99]

Islamic State say their man in St. Cloud Minnesota was behind the stabbing in Macy's. etc.
http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/l...-mall-stabber-soldier-islamic-state/90617710/
An Islamic State-run news agency claims the man who stabbed and wounded eight people at Crossroads Center before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer was a “soldier of the Islamic State.”
(seems like every crazy with a set of kitchen knives is a “soldier of the Islamic State.”)

 

[robert99]

Manhunt launched after Manhattan explosion described as 'act of terrorism
Manhunt on! Jeez ... They have fingerprints CCTV and God knows what else - what do the NSA do all day long? - so ...
(It can not be IS as there was no crazy with a knife)

 

[robert99]

Ooh! ‘There will be more’: Chilling 911 call after the Chelsea explosion | New York Post
A 911 caller warned of further explosions right after the blast that rocked Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and injured 29 people, The Post has learned.

“I’m looking at the explosion down the block. There will be more,” the unidentified male said, claiming to be standing at 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue in the aftermath of the terrifying incident, according to law-enforcement sources Sunday.

Investigators believe the blast was the result of a home-made, pressure-cooker bomb similar to an unexploded device found later on 27th Street, sources said.

In another new wrinkle, a hand-written letter, a portion of which is in Arabic, was found inside a plastic bag that held the second device, sources said.
Gay Arab Bomber?!
Meanwhile, sources said investigators were “vetting” an online Tumblr page on which someone claiming to be “the NY Bomber” took responsibility for the blast and said the motive was a response to anti-gay “violence and oppression.”

“I did it because I cannot stand society. I cannot live in a world where homosexuals like myself as well as the rest of the LGBTQ+ community are looked down upon by society,” one post says.

The Tumblr page was taken down early Sunday afternoon.

 

[robert99]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/09/17/philadelphia-gunman-driven-by-hatred-ambushed-officer-then-went-on-deadly-rampage/
Great weekend for shootin' and a bombin' - altogether now ... USA! USA!

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/19/nyregion/new-york-explosion-chelsea.html
Tensions in the region, already high, escalated later Sunday night when, according to a law enforcement official, pipe bombs were found near the train station in Elizabeth, N.J. The mayor, J. Christian Bollwage, confirmed that a suspicious package containing “wires and a pipe” had been found by two men in the city, and said that the F.B.I. and the New Jersey State Police had been called in to investigate after a drone found that the item could be a bomb.
UPDATE-
Suspicious devices found near New Jersey station - BBC News
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, police detonated a device on Monday following concerns it was a live bomb.

"That was not a controlled explosion," said Mayor Christian Bollwage, adding that the blast happened as a robot examining a device cut a wire.

The bag containing multiple devices was picked out of a bin by two men who thought it could contain something of value.

"They started to examine the backpack is when they found the wires and the pipes and they dropped the backpack, walked around the corner, went in to police headquarters and notified us right away," he said.

 

[Second Summer]

More developments:
Sources: Up to 5 People in FBI Custody in Connection With NY Bombing, Following Traffic Stop

 

[Moll Flanders]

New York bombing suspect identified - BBC News

 

[robert99]

AHMAD KHAN RAHAMI
His last known address was in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Is he gay though?)

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/nyregion/nyc-nj-explosions-ahmad-khan-rahami.html
Mr. Rahami was identified by officials on surveillance video planting the bombs in Chelsea, both the device that exploded on 23rd Street and another that did not detonate a few blocks away. His fingerprint was also found on one of the pressure cooker bombs in Manhattan, according to a senior law enforcement official.

Mr. Rahami was born on Jan. 23, 1988, in Afghanistan. He was described as a naturalized citizen who had been living with his family in Elizabeth, not far from where he was arrested. Neighbors said that several years ago Mr. Rahami traveled to his homeland and when he returned, he showed signs of radicalization. The significance of the visit was not immediately clear. It was not known whether he had any links to an overseas terror organization, or whether he had been inspired by such organizations.

The authorities began to focus on Mr. Rahami on Sunday as they reviewed hours of surveillance video taken from the Chelsea area.

On Sunday evening, increasingly confident that Mr. Rahami might be involved in the bombing, the police rushed to act when they saw a car leaving an address associated with him.

The car was pulled over on the Belt Parkway near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Brooklyn. Five people inside were questioned and later released.

... the Rahami family ran a restaurant, and before dawn federal agents and local police officers were swarming a residential neighborhood of low-rise apartment buildings, multiple-family homes and small businesses.

They searched the restaurant, First American Fried Chicken, and addresses where he was reported to have spent time.
(So how come the authorities had his fingerprints?)

 

[robert99]

The Minnesota mall stabbing could be the realisation of America's worst terror fears
Man who carried out Minnesota mall stabbing was Somali-American

Leaders of the Somali community in central Minnesota united Sunday to condemn the stabbings. They said the suspect - identified by his father as 22-year-old Dahir A. Adan - does not represent them, and they expressed fear about a backlash.

Minnesota has the nation's largest Somali community, with census numbers placing the population at about 40,000 but community activists saying it's even higher.

The community has been a target for terror recruiters in recent years. More than 20 young men have left the state since 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia, and roughly a dozen people have left in recent years to join militants in Syria. In addition, nine Minnesota men face sentencing on terror charges for plotting to join the Islamic State group.

Authorities didn't identify the attacker. The identification of Adan came from his father, Ahmed Adan, who spoke to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis through an interpreter. Ahmed Adan said his son was born in Kenya but was Somali and had lived in the U.S. for 15 years. Local activists also identified Dahir Adan as Somali.

 

[shyvas]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/nyregion/nyc-nj-explosions-ahmad-khan-rahami.html
Mr. Rahami was identified by officials on surveillance video planting the bombs in Chelsea, both the device that exploded on 23rd Street and another that did not detonate a few blocks away. His fingerprint was also found on one of the pressure cooker bombs in Manhattan, according to a senior law enforcement official.

Mr. Rahami was born on Jan. 23, 1988, in Afghanistan. He was described as a naturalized citizen who had been living with his family in Elizabeth, not far from where he was arrested. Neighbors said that several years ago Mr. Rahami traveled to his homeland and when he returned, he showed signs of radicalization. The significance of the visit was not immediately clear. It was not known whether he had any links to an overseas terror organization, or whether he had been inspired by such organizations.

The authorities began to focus on Mr. Rahami on Sunday as they reviewed hours of surveillance video taken from the Chelsea area.

On Sunday evening, increasingly confident that Mr. Rahami might be involved in the bombing, the police rushed to act when they saw a car leaving an address associated with him.

The car was pulled over on the Belt Parkway near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Brooklyn. Five people inside were questioned and later released.

... the Rahami family ran a restaurant, and before dawn federal agents and local police officers were swarming a residential neighborhood of low-rise apartment buildings, multiple-family homes and small businesses.

They searched the restaurant, First American Fried Chicken, and addresses where he was reported to have spent time.
(So how come the authorities had his fingerprints?)

They also have my fingerprints ! I would imagine that coming from his recent trip in Afghanistan he would have been more closely monitored at the border control.

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/n...n-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

The authorities are also searching for two men who apparently stumbled on one of the bombs planted in Manhattan on Saturday evening and took the explosive device out of a bag before walking away with the bag — although officials said they were not believed to be part of the plot.

On Wednesday, investigators, who believe the bag might be a valuable piece of evidence, released images of the men — one wearing a pink golf shirt and the other wearing a light brown button-down collared shirt. The images were taken from surveillance video that shows them walking on 27th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue in Chelsea between 8 and 9 p.m. on Saturday.

The authorities said they did not believe the men were tied to Mr. Rahami.

“We have no reason to believe they’re connected,” Chief James Waters, head of the New York Police Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

The city police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, said they were considered “witnesses.”

In fact, several law enforcement officials have suggested that the men might have inadvertently prevented even greater carnage, perhaps jostling the bomb when they removed it and causing it to fail to explode.

After a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, N.J., on Saturday morning — one of the two bombings Mr. Rahami is accused of carrying out — he was seen in Elizabeth, N.J., where he lived in an apartment above his family’s chicken restaurant.

He visited a hair salon next door to his home early Saturday afternoon along with two men and two women, according to the salon owner’s wife, Sonia Reyes.

Ms. Reyes said she knew Mr. Rahami well as a neighbor and frequent customer and was used to him bringing in new clients, often cousins.

But Ms. Reyes said she had not seen the people he was with on Saturday, hours before the bombing that injured 31 people in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

According to a criminal complaint filed against Mr. Rahami in federal court on Tuesday, he was recorded driving into Manhattan using the Lincoln Tunnel at around 6:30 p.m., two hours before the bombing, and that he stayed in the city until 11:30 p.m. He left the city through the Lincoln Tunnel as well.

 

[robert99]

The US's war in Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq comes home - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/n...edCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article
The complaint says Mr. Rahami was motivated by an extremist Islamic ideology that he recorded in a notebook he had with him when he was shot and wounded by the police in Linden, N.J., on Monday morning before being taken into custody.

Pierced by a bullet and splattered with blood, the journal contains screeds against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one handwritten message, Mr. Rahami pleads that he not be caught before carrying out his planned attacks.

The authorities are also scrutinizing a number of trips Mr. Rahami made overseas, particularly several to Pakistan. In May 2011, he made a three-month trip to Quetta, according to law enforcement officials, citing Customs and Border Protection records. In April 2013, he traveled to Quetta again and did not return until March 2014, according to information provided to customs authorities by the New York City police.

Mr. Rahami’s wife, Asia, who left the country days before the bombing, is now in the United Arab Emirates. She provided a statement to the F.B.I., according to officials, and the authorities are working to bring her back into the country as soon as possible.