A big part of the official "lone wolf" narrative is that these were just individual Muslims radicalized over the internet in ways that did not in any way relate to their communities or families. But here's an interesting data point.
The wife and mother of bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami left the U.S. just days before the coordinated attacks in Manhattan and New Jersey, a law enforcement official revealed.
Authorities are working with his wife’s home country of Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates in order to question the woman about what she might have known about the acts of terror, CNN reported.
Rahami had petitioned Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) to help bring his wife — who was pregnant at the time — to the country in 2014 after she ran into issues with her visa, the congressman said Monday in a television interview.
“He wanted his wife to come from Pakistan,” Sires told MSNBC. “At the time she was pregnant and in Pakistan. They told her that she could not come over until she had the baby, because she had to get a visa for the baby.”
His wife, whose name has not been revealed, was able to enter the country but left the U.S. just days before the terrorist attacks her husband is suspected of carrying out. His mother, Najiba Rahami, left the country for Turkey three weeks before the bombings and has yet to return, a U.S. official told ABC News.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence. We'd be Islamophobes to think otherwise. And no doubt they will shortly resurface, standing right behind a CAIR official while telling us how much the backlash has hurt them.