Even Rahami’s own father called him a terrorist two years ago after he stabbed his brother in the leg with a knife:
BREAKING: Father of suspect in NY, NJ attacks told police his son was a terrorist two years ago, prompting FBI review: New York Times
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 20, 2016
NY TIMES – Two years before Ahmad Khan Rahami went on a bombing rampage in New York and New Jersey, his father told the police that the son was a terrorist, prompting a review by federal agents, according to two senior law enforcement officials.
The father made the statement about his son being a terrorist to New Jersey police in 2014, when Mr. Rahami was arrested after a domestic dispute and accused of stabbing his brother.
The information was passed to the Joint Terrorism Task Force led by the 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 recanted.
An official, when asked about the inquiry, said the father made the comment out of anger at his son.
It is not clear if officers interviewed Ahmad Rahami.
Given the claim by his father and the fact that his son had been in Pakistan for a year, this should have raised alarm bells with the FBI even though his father recanted his claim later.
Anger or not, it sounds like this father knew exactly what his son had become after his trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.