NEW YORK CITY — Accused Chelsea bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami was captured with a bloody journal containing the name of an ISIS leader, government officials said.
Rahami wrote in the notebook that his “guidance comes from” ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani — who was killed in an airstrike — and that "God willing, the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets,” Congressional Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said during a hearing in Washington, D.C. Wednesday.
“He talked about pressure-cooker bombs and pipe bombs,” McCaul said while holding up a picture of the bloody journal. “[He talked about] gunshots to your police, death to your oppression.”
Investigators have been looking into Rahami's motives for the bombing on West 23rd Street that injured 31 people.
There were also questions about why he was not on the FBI’s radar after his father told law enforcement officials in 2014 that his son was a “terrorist” following a domestic incident.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism John Miller said during the hearing that federal investigators would look into whether he should have been more closely monitored.
"But based on what I’ve seen so far as part of the investigation, he seems like many suspects who came into contact with the system at various times and was handled to the extent that the system, the law and the guidelines that we operate under, would allow them to,” Miller said.
Rahami was charged with using weapons of mass destruction by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and faces life in prison.
Officials were able to lift his fingerprints off a bomb that failed to detonate on West 27th Street.
ISIS has not yet claimed any responsibility for the bombing.
