NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (UPI) — Asia Bibi Rahami, the wife of New York City-area bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami, has voluntarily returned to the United States from the United Arab Emirates, authorities said.
Rahami’s wife is not believed to be a suspect, CBS News reported. Authorities are expected to talk with Asia Bibi Rahami in an attempt to better understand Rahami’s alleged path to radicalization and to see if anyone knew about the bombing plan.
She arrived in New York late Wednesday after leaving the United States in June to travel to Pakistan. She was making her way back to the United States but was stopped in United Arab Emirates because she was placed on a no-fly list.
The Wall Street Journal reported officials describe Asia Bibi Rahami as cooperative and helpful.
Rahami’s father, Mohammad Rahami, told The New York Times that he warned FBI investigators about his son ahead of the bombings.
“I told the FBI to keep an eye on him,” Mohammad Rahami said. “They said, ‘Is he a terrorist?’ I said: ‘I don’t know. I can’t guarantee you 100 percent if he is a terrorist. I don’t know which groups he is in. I can’t tell you.'”
He said his son’s behavior worried him because it seemed related to Islamist extremism. The New York Times reported the FBI first approached Mohammad Rahami after the father described his son as a “terrorist” to local police.
“The way he speaks, his videos, when I see these things that he listens to, for example, al-Qaida, Taliban, he watches their videos, their poetry,” Mohammad Rahami said said he told the FBI.
Earlier this week, the FBI said it previously conducted an assessment of Rahami, which included interviews with his father, but the inquiry did not provide anything that required further investigation.
“During its assessment on Ahmad Rahami, the FBI initiated contact with his father, who had expressed concern over his son’s Internet use as well as some of his associates. Ahmad Rahami’s travel revealed no information that tied him to terrorism,” an FBI source told The New York Times.
“At no time did the father advise interviewing agents of any radicalization or alleged links to al-Qaida, the Taliban or their propaganda. Furthermore, database and interagency checks, to include reviews of Ahmad Rahami’s travel, revealed no information that tied him to terrorism.”
Rahami was arrested on Monday after an intense manhunt in the New York City metropolitan area. He was captured after a shootout with police in which he was injured in Linden, N.J. Two officers were shot — one being injured and the other being struck in his Kevlar vest.
Rahami has been connected to a Saturday bombing in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, which injured 29, a bombing earlier that day in New Jersey’s Seaside Park and to a bag filled with improvised explosive devices found in near an Elizabeth, N.J., train station. No injuries were reported in either of the New Jersey incidents.
