New York, New Jersey: Another US "Terrorist" Attack

[David Guyatt]

No journalist has dome a better job than Russ Baker on the Boston bombing. Here he reports on the latest US "terrorist" attack and reveals the similarities it has with the Boston false flag Boston.

Why bother to change the MO if it works?

DEEP POLITICS

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 | JAMES HENRY

ANOTHER TERRORIST, ANOTHER PAST CONNECTION WITH THE FBI

Photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from FBI flyers
Another terrorist attack in a major American city, more frightening images and talk of pressure cookers and ball bearings, BBs and pipe bombs, "lone wolves" and Christmas tree lights.
The latest alleged perpetrator is Ahmad Khan Rahami, a young Muslim man who grew up in America and likes souped-up cars. He became "self-radicalized" watching videos on the Internet that inspired him to blow up innocent Americans.
Some experts say the bombs he made show a high level of sophistication and training, but with more than a half a dozen bombs deployed, not a single person was killed. Some saw it coming others say they can't believe it.
He traveled to Afghanistan or Pakistan or both in the years prior to the attack. Nobody seems to know what he did there, but authorities are pretty sure there's no wider conspiracy.
Cornered and desperate after authorities released his picture to the public, it's a small miracle the suspect is still alive after a wild shootout with police.
Sound familiar?
The Boston Herald understandably thinks so. In a piece titled "Attack had eerie resemblance to Boston Marathon bombings," the Herald points out the many superficial similarities to the 2013 attack at the Boston Marathon. The lead paragraph reads: "From pressure cookers, the release of a suspect photo, to the subsequent manhunt and shootout with cops, yesterday's arrests of Ahmad Khan Rahami in New York City and New Jersey has stirred echoes of blasts at the Boston Marathon in 2013, security experts said."
But there are far more significant similarities.
The reliably pro-law-and-order Herald left out the part about the FBI's prior contact with the suspect. The New York Times, to its credit, did inform us that the FBI conducted an "assessment" on Rahami in 2014, because his father told them he was a terrorist. Then dad took it back.
Interestingly, the Times also mentioned that the suspect's father claims to have fought with the CIA-supported Afghan Mujahedin against the Soviets back in the 80s. TheTimes didn't attach much significance to either revelation and probably won't pursue the connections much further.
But, as with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, another recent "lone wolf" who suddenly started acting as a cartoonish Muslim fanatic, the FBI and CIA can be found lurking in the back story.
It is entirely possible that there are a lot of so-called lone wolves on the prowl a sort of self-directed fifth-column of ISIS. But, according to investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson, an alarming number of them are being pushed and prodded by provocateurs on the federal payroll. We don't know if Rahami was similarly pushed, but it's a valid question nonetheless.
The FBI claims to have sent undercover agents to "investigate" Rahami, but "didn't find enough information to charge him," according to the Boston Globe. What that investigation consisted of is still, and likely will remain, unclear. The FBI seldom reveals its "sources and methods."
At the very least, the public should be told what this type of contact looks like and whether it is at least conceivable that such government actions can contribute to pushing young men to commit these types of crimes.
But despite these obvious concerns, the US government's "war on terror" strategies arestrangely absent from President Barack Obama's Countering Violent Extremism program, which is currently grappling with the thorny issue of what might be provoking these desperate acts.
Will we get a legitimate investigation that delves into the precise nature of federal agents' interactions with Rahami, or will we just get another whitewash that only looks at "intelligence failures." It will most likely be the latter (here's why).

History Doesn't Repeat, It Rhymes

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How likely is it that Rahami's travel to Afghanistan, an active war zone, escaped the scrutiny of federal agents? Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled overseas to a geopolitical hotspot in the years before the Boston Marathon bombing, but the Feds claim to have ignored internal warnings about him and waved him through at the airport.
The FBI appears to be covering up their prior interactions with Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Will we see the same thing with Rahami?
Authorities never nailed down exactly where the bombs the Tsarnaevs used were made and who made them. Will we get these details in the Rahami case? The public would like to know who is making all these "sophisticated" explosives.
Like Rahami, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had many of the hallmarks of an individual the FBI routinely coerces to act as undercover informants. In fact, WhoWhatWhy has documented compelling evidence (see here, here and here).
And what about that decision to release the photos of Rahami? As with the Tsarnaevs such an action almost guarantees a desperate reaction from the pursued not surprisingly ending in a potentially lethal gun battle.
Former Boston police Commissioner Edward F. Davis, who questioned the wisdom of releasing the Tsarnaevs' photos after the Marathon bombing, again seems to be questioning the release of such photos. He told the Boston Herald: "Once those pictures go out, that's when it's most dangerous. … He [Rahami] attempted suicide by cop. It's all very familiar."

Source

[Peter Lemkin]

One big twist, is the police not shooting to kill, but capturing him after wounding him with three shots to the limbs. Ordinary black men throughout America, unarmed, are routinely shot with intention to kill for doing absolutely nothing. I'll be very interested to learn more of any intelligence 'watching' or 'guiding' of him in recent years. There were initial calls for him to be held as an enemy combatant, but apparently these were so far ignored. In fact, he has not yet to my knowledge even been charged with any terrorism related crimes - only possession of firearms and intent to injure police. Strange.

[R.K. Locke]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/nyr...uards.html

[Peter Lemkin]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/nyr...uards.html

So, according to this report they were trained airlines security in-flight guards from Egypt Air. Quite a 'coincidence' they found the bag and they didn't see a bomb as a bomb inside, as they claim.....:: If you believe this story, these trained experts wanted the bag, but didn't want the pressure cooker inside connected to a battery and a mobile phone (didn't want that either), so just left all that on the street and took the suitcase....yeah, right! ::rofl:: Oh, and they didn't tell the police then nor after it was international news that they found a pressure-cooker bomb in the bag...but waited for US authorities to track them down....and they are refusing to come to the USA to be interviewed, apparently.

[David Guyatt]

More from Russ Baker:

OCTOBER 10, 2016 | JAMES HENRY

FBI VERSION OF NY/NJ BOMBING STORY SOUNDS VERY FAMILIAR

Photo credit: Adopted by WhoWhatWhy from background (Jim Larrison / Flickr - CC BY 2.0), wolf statue (William Garrett / Flickr - CC BY 2.0) and J Edgar Hoover building (Cliff / Flickr - CC BY 2.0)
There are some striking similarities between the recent New York/New Jersey bombings and the Boston Marathon bombing, including the use of pressure cooker bombs. But the similarity that really should be ringing everyone's alarm bells yet apparently has not is the revelation that the FBI had prior connections with both bombing suspects.
A number of contradictions and discrepancies in the FBI's account of those contacts prompts troubling questions about whether the FBI is coming clean about its interest in Ahmad Khan Rahami.
And just as the Bureau did with the purported Marathon bombing mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev (and Orlando mass murderer Omar Matteen another person with whom the FBI was familiar prior to the act), the FBI is painting a minimalist picture of its prior contacts with Rahami, the accused Manhattan and Jersey shore bomber.
For one, the FBI and Rahami's father are at odds about what he told investigators about his son's drift toward extremism the reason the FBI investigated him to begin with. "Keep an eye on him," the father says he told investigators. The FBI disputes this.
Another reason for concern is the contradiction between the FBI's "hands off" approach to investigating Rahami (and Tsarnaev) and the well documented and usually very aggressive tactics used against most people with even the thinnest of terrorist connections.

Blame the Messenger

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Rahami's father, Mohammad Rahami, claims he first alerted the FBI about his son's radical tendencies after his son assaulted family members. "He warned federal agents explicitly about his son's interest in terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and his fascination with jihadist music, poetry and videos," according to The New York Times.
The FBI denies that Rahami senior told agents who interviewed him anything about "radicalization" or "links to Al Qaeda, the Taliban or their propaganda." By definition, if he had, then the FBI botched the investigation. Or is something else going on?
Based on what they were told, the FBI says it conducted an "assessment," the lowest level of investigation also used to check on Tsarnaev, which included an interview with the father, a review of Bureau databases and public records, and checks with other agencies. The FBI claims the assessment did not turn up anything that warranted further inquiry.
"If he had been communicating directly with the terrorist organization and the father said Look here's the email, here's the phone call, here's the communication,' that would be something different that would allow the FBI to get an investigation," ex-FBI special agent and counterterror expert Tim Clemente, said on Fox News's "Fox & Friends."
The implication is clear: Had Rahami senior given investigative agents more specific information about his son's activities, the Bureau would have dug deeper. But is it really up to the tipster to provide the FBI with iron-clad proof before they investigate a serious accusation?
Besides, many of the individuals targeted by FBI terrorism investigations and stings had no known connections to terrorist organizations, hence the moniker "lone wolf."
J.Edgar Hoover building. Omar Mateen (top left), Wasil Farooqui (top right), Tamerlan Tsarnaev (bottom left), Major Nidal Hasan (bottom right) Photo credit: Adopted by WhoWhatWhy from J Edgar Hoover building (Cliff / Flickr CC BY 2.0), Omar Mateen (MySpace), and Wasil Farooqui (mugshot), Major Nidal Hasan (Department of Defense / Wikimedia), Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Unknown)

Blame the Russians

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This was the official line after the Marathon bombing: If only the Russian intelligence services gave us more information on Tamerlan Tsarnaev, we would have investigated him more. The New York Times explained why:
The Russian government declined to provide the FBI with information about one of the Boston marathon bombing suspects two years before the attack that likely would have prompted more extensive scrutiny of the suspect, according to an inspector general's review of how US intelligence and law enforcement agencies could have thwarted the bombing.
The "information" withheld by the Russians, according to an anonymous official, was a vague description of an intercepted phone call between Tamerlan and his mother during which they discussed Islamic jihad. But as we pointed out at the time, "the reality is that the Russians had already warned that Tamerlan was an Islamic radical, and it is not clear how this additional information would necessarily have provided anything truly substantive to add to a request for spying authority."
That is, unless FBI agents already knew, or thought they knew, what Tsarnaev was up to with all the jihadi-talk.
Further complicating the FBI's version of events, then-FBI director Robert Mueller in a little noticed exchange at a congressional hearing weeks after the bombing admitted that Tsarnaev's name had come up twice in FBI records prior to Russia's warning. Mueller's admission renders dubious the claim that it was Russia that brought Tsarnaev to the attention of the FBI.

Unequal before the FBI?

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The mainstream press has taken note of the alarming number of "known wolves" carrying out violent acts after having some kind of interaction with the FBI.
Omar Mateen, Wasil Farooqui, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Major Nidal Hasan the list goes on.
However, this is typically noted as a curious "coincidence," which is quickly explained away. The fallback claim for the FBI, and FBI apologists, is that the Bureau's agents are somehow hamstrung by America's laws protecting civil liberties and that the system is overwhelmed by the number of terrorist investigations.
But if that were actually the case, then why does the Bureau, in some cases, spend years of man-hours and untold sums of money following around and provoking certain individuals into terrorist plots that, upon closer inspection, were not really much of a threat to anybody until FBI provocateurs got involved?
Take Sami Osmakac. A hapless if disturbed young man suffering from mental illness, whom the FBI "investigated" for years, including using a paid provocateur who ultimately cajoled Osmakac into plotting to bomb a local Irish bar. One of the FBI agents on his case can be heard in a recording leaked to the press calling Osmakac a "retarded fool" who didn't actually have the capacity to plan the attack.
Then there is Khalifah al-Akili, who was also watched for years and "worked" for months by a paid informant who ultimately said of his target: "That dude ain't going to bust a grape he ain't going to throw rice at a wedding, believe me." But that didn't stop the FBI from introducing yet another informant and continuing the (probably very expensive and time-consuming) investigation.
Advocacy groups like Human Rights Watch and Project SALAM have painted a picture of an FBI that is engaged in a systematic program of entrapment and trumping up charges against many Muslims who pose no real danger to the US.
Conversely, the FBI's account of how it handled its investigations of Rahami and Tsarnaev contradicts this well-established track record of using extremely aggressive measures to "investigate" Muslims living in the US.
Why is the FBI applying this aggressive approach in such an unequal and seemingly arbitrary manner? Does the Bureau "go easy" on certain people whom they are using for some unknown purpose?
The Bureau claims to have conducted an "assessment" of Rahami that lasted all of three weeks. Predictably, it didn't turn up anything. A similarly superficial assessment was conducted on Tsarnaev, who was not even an American citizen. Why the soft touch on these guys? Both of them already had a record showing a propensity for violence.
A line from the "it was Russia's fault" New York Times article about Tsarnaev's investigation illuminates the kind of risky game that agencies like the FBI play with dangerous individuals: "At the time, American law enforcement officials believed that Mr. Tsarnaev posed a far greater threat to Russia."
It's not made clear whether the author was quoting or paraphrasing his source, but it's a telling comment nonetheless. The US has a sordid history of supporting Islamic radicals who fought against Russian interests. (In a rather intriguing "coincidence," Rahami's father claims to have fought with the CIA-supported Afghan Mujahedin against the Russians in the 1980s.)
It's important to remember that the FBI, despite its best efforts to portray itself as America's premier law enforcement agency, is in fact a domestic spy agency involved in all kinds of domestic espionage and international intrigue.
If an individual brought to the FBI's attention is somehow working for, or unknowingly recruited to play some "useful dupe" role for the Bureau or another federal agency, it stands to reason he or she would not be categorized as a threat.

Source

[Peter Lemkin]

October 23, 2016 | James Henry

NY/NJ Bombing: The Curious Case of the Incurious Security Guards

Hassan Ali and Abou Bakr Radwan from FBI flyer. EgyptAir Airbus A330-200. Photo credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation and Aero Icarus / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Two men who were sought as witnesses in the bombing of the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan have been identified as a pair of EgyptAir "in-flight security officers."
Hassan Ali and Abou Bakr Radwan, both Egyptian nationals whose photo was released by the FBI, are not considered suspects. Instead, we are told, they simply happened upon the travel bag containing the bomb and decided to take the piece of luggage, thereby disabling the bomb. They didn't know what was in it until later.
Really? Two security officers who work for an airline based in Egypt, had no clue they were looking at an improvised explosive device?
The two men were identified after officials tracked their movements, via security cameras, back to the hotel where they were staying.
Mr. Ali "told me he saw it [the travel bag] and thought it was nice," an EgyptAir official told The New York Times. "He opened the bag to check it out and found a pot."
They left the "pot" on the sidewalk and walked off with the luggage. The pot was of course a pressure cooker wrapped in duct tape with a cell phone wired to the top.
Really? They had no idea what a pressure cooker stuffed in a bag might be used for? One with a cell phone wired to the top?
Would they not have received some kind of training in the identification of suspicious devices? Had they not heard that pressure cookers, left in bags on the sidewalk, were used in the Boston Marathon bombing?
Based on the image of the men distributed by the FBI, officials determined that around the time of the explosion, the men were walking on W. 27th St., four blocks away from where the other bomb went off on W. 23rd St. In other words, they likely heard the loud boom and still didn't figure out what might have been the purpose of their lucky find.
Another strange thing is what the perpetrator used to "hide" the bomb. It's hard to think of a piece of luggage that would guarantee more attention from scavengers in New York City than a Louis Vuitton travel bag even if it was a cheap knockoff. Why disguise your explosive device in such a distinctive attention-grabbing piece of luggage?
A video of the two security officers making their find was released by law enforcement to NBC 4 New York. The video shows that the men got a good look at what was in the travel bag. It wasn't just a quick glance. According to the video's time stamp, the men spent more than a minute inspecting the bag's contents. NBC 4 points out that "they take the device out of the bag, set it on the sidewalk, and then examine the top and bottom."
For some reason, the FBI basically cleared Ali and Radwan of any wrongdoing before they even knew who they were, or had a chance to question them. "As airline security officers, have you had any training in spotting potential bombs?" "Have you ever heard of a pressure-cooker bomb?" "Why do you think a cell phone was wired to the pressure cooker?"
After the story broke, it didn't appear that Egyptian officials were in any rush to interview them. When an official was asked if they had spoken to the officers, he said they had not they couldn't find the two men: "It was their day off."
Really?