NY, NJ bombing suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Afghan descent, was wounded and captured wounded in a Police Shootout in Linden, New Jersey.

With the bombing attack in New York, multiple failed bombings in New Jersey and New York, and an ISIS-claimed knife attack in a a Minnesota mall, terrorism and migration issues are once again in the US presidential election spotlight.

bombing-suspect

Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man suspected in bombings in New York and New Jersey, is now in custody after a shootout with police, sources said.

The shootout happened Monday in Linden, New Jersey. Rahami was shot and was taken to an ambulance in a stretcher with his right shoulder bloodied and bandaged.

Two officers were hit in the shootout with Rahami, the mayor of the nearby city of Elizabeth said. One officer’s vest was struck, and the other was shot in the hand.

Investigators first identified Rahami Sunday afternoon, a senior law enforcement official told CNN Monday. They were able to identify him through a fingerprint, the official said. The cell phone on the pressure cooker device found at the 27th street location in Manhattan also provided some clues, the official added.

The most destructive incident took place Saturday night in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, where 29 people were injured.

Earlier Saturday, a garbage can exploded near the starting line of a Marine Corps charity run in Seaside Park, New Jersey.

And on Sunday night, a backpack with multiple bombs inside was found in Elizabeth, New Jersey around 9:30 p.m. Sunday in a wastebasket outside a neighborhood pub — about 500 feet from a train trestle, officials said.

It contained up to five devices, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said. The two men who found the backpack thought it might contain something valuable, but they alerted police when they saw wires and a pipe on the devices, the mayor said. “The robot that went in to disarm it, cut a wire and it exploded,” Bollwage said.

Pressure Cooker Bomb

pressure-cooker-bomb

The above pressure cooker bomb failed to explode in New York.

Video of Chelsea, Manhattan Bombing

Bomb Dismantling Robot Fails to Disarm Device

Terrorism, Migration in US Election Spotlight

With these bombings and bombing attempts, and the Capture of Ahmad Khan Rahami, terrorism threats will move to the center stage of the US election campaign.

Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, told Fox News police were hamstrung in preventing terrorism “because they don’t want to be accused of profiling”. He also tweeted: “Refugees from Syria over 10k plus more coming. Lots young males, poorly vetted.”

Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump’s Democratic rival, reiterated her plan for an “intelligence surge” in remarks to reporters: “I’ve been clear, we’re going after the bad guys and we’re going to get them,” she said: “But we’re not going to go after an entire religion and give ISIS exactly what it wants.”

President Barack Obama, in a press conference shortly before confirmation of Mr Rahami’s arrest, praised law enforcement officials and urged Americans “not to succumb” to the fear terrorists sought to instill.

Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor, suggested there may be an international connection to the attack after saying there was no evidence for such links on the weekend. “Today’s information suggests it may be foreign related, but we’ll see where it goes,” he said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the bombs, but a statement by Isis claiming a knife attack in a Minnesota mall on Saturday added to the sense of jitters.

The terror group’s Amaq news agency said a “soldier of the Islamic State” was behind the attack in the Crossroads Centre mall in St Cloud on Saturday, in which a man wearing a private security uniform stabbed eight people before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer.

Events Help Trump

These events will undoubtedly help Donald Trump.

The average US citizen does not want to accept 10,000 Syrians, with no background checks as president Obama wants.

And Hillary’s pleas for “more intelligence” will play as too weak a response to these attacks.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock