NY attack suspect taunted Trump before botched bombing

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

The 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant accused of carrying out an attempted bombing in New York made a taunting Facebook post directed at President Donald Trump before the attack, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

"Trump you failed to protect your nation," Akayed Ullah wrote Monday on the social media site before allegedly carrying out the terrorist attack.

Ullah, who lives in Brooklyn, most seriously harmed himself when he set off what authorities have described as a pipe bomb-like improvised explosive device in a heavily-trafficked subway underground walkway during the morning rush hour. He was quickly sent to nearby Bellevue Hospital for treatment. At least three pedestrians took themselves to local hospital for treatment of minor wounds.

He was read and waived his Miranda Rights, or the right to remain silent, verbally and in writing when interviewed by police, later saying he was inspired by Daesh to carry out the botched attack, the complaint said.

"I did it for the Islamic State," Ullah allegedly told investigators. According to the complaint, he built the metal screw-filled pipe bomb one week before carrying out the attack. It was attached to his body using zip ties, and used a nine-volt battery and a Christmas tree lightbulb.

It ultimately was not powerful enough to turn the pipe and the metal screws it contained into deadly shrapnel.

During a search of his Brooklyn apartment investigators recovered a passport with a handwritten note reading: "O America, die in your rage", as well metal pipes, screws similar to those found at the explosion site, and wires, the complaint said.

He now faces five federal charges including providing material support to Daesh, and use of a weapon of mass destruction. He is scheduled to appear in court later Tuesday but it is unclear if he is healthy enough to make the trip.

Ullah's family said they are "outraged" by the police response following the attack.

"We are heartbroken by the violence that was targeted at our city today, and by the allegations being made against a member of our family," the family said in a statement read late Monday by Albert Fox Cahn, the legal director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations-New York.

"But we are also outraged by the behavior of the law enforcement officials who have held children as small as 4 years old out in the cold and who pulled a teenager out of high school classes to interrogate him without a lawyer, without his parents," the family added. "These are not the sorts of actions we expect from our justice system, and we have every confidence that our justice system will find the truth behind this attack, and that we will, in the end, be able to learn what occurred today."

It is not clear if the statement is referring to children who are part of the family, or other non-family members.

President Donald Trump cited the attack to push his immigration initiatives aimed at tightening restrictions for those seeking U.S. entry, particularly individuals from Muslim-majority countries.

"America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country," he said in a statement issued hours after the attack.

"My Executive action to restrict the entry of certain nationals from eight countries, which the Supreme Court recently allowed to take effect, is just one step forward in securing our immigration system."

Ullah is from Bangladesh -- a country not on Trump’s travel ban, but the president has sought a separate end to so-called "chain migration", or U.S. entry based on extended familial relations.

Saying Ullah used the program to enter the U.S., Trump called it "incompatible with national security" and urged lawmakers to bring it to an end on Monday.

Francis Cissna, Trump's immigration services director, took aim at the program as well as the visa lottery program, saying Ullah's uncle came to the U.S. from Bangladesh under the lottery before sponsoring his nephew as an extended family member.

“The suspect in yesterday’s bombing came in under the most extreme, remote possible family-based connection that you can have under current U.S. immigration law,” Cissna told reporters at the White House.

“Random lotteries, extended family connections, that’s not the way to run our immigration system," he added.