New Jersey Bomber’s Notebook: ‘Attack the Kuffar in Their Backyard’

Frances Martel writes in Breitbart:

Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man believed responsible for a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey, was carrying on his person a notebook filled with radical Islamic invective referencing multiple jihadi attacks and terrorism-linked clerics.

In the notebook, Rahami accuses the American government of triggering a war on U.S. soil and favorably references Al Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, chief terrorist Osama bin Laden, and terrorists who have acted in the United States, such as Fort Hood jihadi Nidal Hassan.

“You (USA government) continue your … slaught against … mujahideen be it Afhanistan, Iraq, Sham, Palestine… etc,” Rahami writes, using the preferred term of Syria among Sunni jihadis. “Brother Osama bin Laden offered you a truce,” he writes. “You should of let us meet death overseas. You wanted it this way so you will have it this way.”

In another part of the notebook, he relates that he was seeking how to conduct terror attacks and began consulting the works of famed terror propagandists. “I looked for guidence [sic] and Alhumdulilah Guidance came. Sheikh Anwar Brother Adnani Dawla. Said it clearly attack the kuffar in their backyard,” he write. “Brother Adnani Dawla” appears to be a reference to Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, a chief Islamic State spokesman killed earlier this year. “Dawlah” is the Arabic word for “State.”

Rahami later makes clear he is referring to Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki in another part of the book. “Anwar al Awlaki has spoken the truth. ‘Join us in our new front’ IE Yemen,” the notebook reads.

“Inshallah the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets. Gun shots to your police. Death to your Oppression,” he writes. A part of the notebook pierced by the bullet hole appears to reference the attempted bombing of a charity 5K race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, the legible parts reading: “pipe bombs, pressure cooker bombs on … in the streets they plan to run a mile.”

“The FBI and Homeland Security looking for me,” another sentence fragment notes, indicating he may have been writing in this book after he planted the first bombs.

“In my heart I pray to the beautiful wise Allah. To not take jihad away from. I begged for shahadat [martyrdom] & Inshallah this call will be answered,” Rahami writes. The sentence appears to indicate Rahami was looking to die at the end of his terror spree, and sheds light on reports he is not currently cooperating with police as he recovers from gunshot wounds in Newark.

In a particularly damaged part of the notebook, Rahami wrote the words “Asallam Alaiykum” and “conflict of good and evil.”

Breitbart News has seen the notebook in question through images obtained from a law enforcement source. The notebook was on Rahami’s person and appeared to have been pierced by a bullet. The bullet hole and blood stains make parts of it difficult to read.

Rahami is believed to be responsible for planting bombs in Seaside Park, NJ, Chelsea, Manhattan, and Elizabeth, NJ over the weekend. The bomb in Chelsea injured 29 people, and Rahami injured two police officers in a gunfight in Linden, NJ, where he was arrested.