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Former U.S. Rep Pete Hoekstra weighs in on recent terror attacks

Peter Hoekstra
U.S. House of Representatives via Wikimedia | CC BY 3.0
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Wikimedia.org

Investigators probing bomb blasts in New York and New Jersey say they've found no evidence so far that the suspect in the attacks was part of a broader terrorist cell.

New York City's mayor and police commissioner says no other suspects are being sought at this time. Ahmad Khan Rahami was shot Monday in an exchange of gunfire with police in Linden, New Jersey.

The assistant director of the FBI's field office in New York, William Sweeney Jr., said in a news briefing that "there is no indication that there's a cell" in the area.

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity says Rahami wasn't on any terror or no-fly watch lists but had been interviewed for immigration purposes.

WGVU’s Patrick Center sat down with Pete Hoekstra, the former chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, for his take on the latest terror attack.

"You’ve got to watch language here. They say he was not known to us as a terror suspect. But was he known to law enforcement for another reason?

"And I don’t know all of the capabilities that this individual has, but a 28 year old man from Afghanistan who maybe speaks the language of Afghanistan fits into that community, was he ever approached by law enforcement to perhaps cooperate and work with us? And when you listen to what they’re saying you really don’t know.

"So, he could have been known to law enforcement but as maybe somebody we tried to use or maybe tried to get him to do some work for us, translations or those types of things, the kind of capabilities he has are very, very valuable to law enforcement."

Officials say evidence links Rahami to bomb blasts on Saturday in a New Jersey shore town and in Manhattan. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that, based on current information, "We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror."

Rahami has been charged with five counts of attempted murder of law enforcement officers after his shootout with police who were trying to arrest him. He now faces two weapons charges.

Bail has been set at $5.2 million.

You can hear more of Patrick’s interview with Pete Hoekstra on Tuesday at noon on WGVU’s “Mid-Day West Michigan.”

Patrick joined WGVU Public Media in December, 2008 after eight years of investigative reporting at Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV8 and three years at WYTV News Channel 33 in Youngstown, Ohio. As News and Public Affairs Director, Patrick manages our daily radio news operation and public interest television programming. An award-winning reporter, Patrick has won multiple Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter/Anchor awards and is a three-time Academy of Television Arts & Sciences EMMY Award winner with 14 nominations.
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