The top Republican on the Senate’s homeland security committee wants the Department of Homeland Security to hand over its records on the suspects in this weekend’s bombings in New York and New Jersey and an unrelated stabbing in Minnesota.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin sent a letter Tuesday to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson asking for information on Dahir Adan, alleged to have stabbed 10 people in a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Ahmad Khan Rahami, alleged to have planted improvised explosive devices in New York and New Jersey.
Johnson also asked for information about Rahami’s wife, Asia Bibi Rahami, a Pakistani national who has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman asked the secretary for the alien files, records of foreign travel, visa applications and citizen applications for the two men and immigration, visa and travel records for Rahami’s wife.
“It is important for Congress to learn more about these individuals in order to understand and evaluate the department’s efforts to counter homegrown radical extremism,” Johnson wrote.
The senator told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday that the request for information is about putting pieces together.
“I’ve sent a letter to secretary of DHS Jeh Johnson. I want to see the alien file, I want to know everything we can found out about Mr. Rahami as well as Mr. Adan,” Johnson said. “And we’ve just got to try to piece things together. But Wolf, we are not fighting a winning battle here when we’re dealing with these inspired lone wolfs.”
Rahami is a naturalized citizen who came to the states from Afghanistan. He traveled at length to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Adan was Somali and was killed by an off-duty police officer during the attack.