Chelsea Bomber Rahami Carried Notebook Full of Pro-Al Qaeda, Boston Jihad Rants

Disputing earlier reports that a terrorist note of some kind was found with one of New Jersey/New York bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami’s unexploded devices, CNN on Tuesday quoted a law-enforcement official who said these “ramblings” are from a notebook found upon his person.

The notebook was punctuated with a bullet hole, which may or may not have been inflicted during the shootout that resulted in Rahami’s capture. The official described the notebook as containing “ramblings about terrorists” and referring to al-Qaeda guru Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who was an inspirational figure for many terrorists, killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

According to CNN, investigators are taking the musings in this notebook as evidence that Rahami was not working for ISIS, which is at war with its progenitors in al-Qaeda. It has also been noted that the design of his bombs tracked closely with an article called “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” published in al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine.

Earlier reports saying Rahami’s notes were found with one of his pressure-cooker bombs said they also referred to the Boston Marathon bombers, who favored the same type of bomb, as well as Major Nidal Hasan, who carried out a mass shooting at Ft. Hood in 2009, and Osama bin Laden.

“Additional details about the contents of the note weren’t immediately available, but law enforcement officials wondered about the purpose of leaving a note with a bomb. If the bomb went off, the note would have been destroyed. Authorities are considering whether the intent may not have been for the pressure cooker device to explode, but for it to draw attention to the note,” NBC News reported earlier – a line of speculation that would be rendered moot if the notes were carried on Rahami’s person, rather than tucked into one of his unexploded bombs.

“Nearly every piece of the bombs recovered is readily available at sporting goods stores, corner convenience stores or on the internet. The instructions for building them is a mere Google search away,” NBC noted.

CBS News, which as of Tuesday morning said there was both a Rahami notebook and a note with the pressure-cooker bomb, said the notes “make a reference to Muslims being killed.”

CBS homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues said Rahimi’s rants suggest he was “a consumer of multiple radical ideologies by several different terrorist organizations.”