Screen capture of The Philadelphia Inquirer, part of Page B-1, August 15, 2023.

One would think that a 17-year-old being arrested in the City of Brotherly Love for attempting to make bombs for terrorist use would make the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website, but if one thought that, one would be wrong. At least as of 9:48 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 15^th, it just wasn’t there. Readers had to look on the newspaper’s specific crime page to find the story . . . if they even knew that the crime page existed.

For those who get and read the print edition? Middle of page B-1!

Philadelphia teen accused of buying and testing bomb-making materials in support of foreign terror group

Authorities did not release the 17-year-old’s name, citing his status as a juvenile but said they would seek to try him as an adult.

by Jeremy Roebuck and Chris Palmer | Monday, August 14, 2023 | 5:46 PM EDT

A 17-year-old from West Philadelphia has been charged with buying and testing bomb-making materials in support of a foreign terrorist group, state and federal authorities announced Monday.

The teen, whom prosecutors declined to name because he is a juvenile, was arrested Friday at his home in the Wynnefield section of the city, said Jacqueline Maguire, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia office.

Investigators say he’d purchased materials including chemicals, wiring, and tactical equipment associated with improvised explosive devices and conducted “generalized research” on potential targets. The teen had also been “taking steps to travel overseas for the purpose of joining or supporting terrorist activity,” Maguire said, though she declined to offer specifics.

The teen faces state felony charges including possessing weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy, arson, and causing or risking a catastrophe — the most serious of which carry prison terms of up to 20 years. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office was required by law to charge the teen in juvenile court, but that prosecutors would seek to move his case into the adult system.

There’s more at the original.

Perhaps I am not the smartest person in the room — well, I am at the moment, since, as I type this, I’m the only person in the room! 🙂 — but one talent I have is noticing things. At least in the Microsoft Edge browser that I use, when you hold the cursor over the page tab, it gives you the original page title, which in this instance was “Philly teen accused of building bombs in support of Syrian terror group”, something a bit more specific than the article headline now, “Philadelphia teen accused of buying and testing bomb-making materials in support of foreign terror group,” and the print edition’s “Teen accused of testing bomb parts for terrorism.” Note that, in the headlines used, the newspaper I have frequently called The Philadelphia Enquirer^[1]RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt. reduced specificity so readers wouldn’t automatically think Muslim terrorists. But once you start reading the names mentioned in the article, you’ll know.

The unusual url for the article is https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-terrorism-qawi-abdul-rahman-katibat-al-tawhid-wal-jihad-20230814.html. Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad is a Syrian group, designated by the State Department as “a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order 13224”, so the Inquirer reporters had to have known

So, who is the 17-year-old suspect? His name was not released, because he is a juvenile, though District Attorney Larry Krasner has said that he will move to have the charges brought in adult court.

(S)ources familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the arrest occurred on the 5900 block of Woodbine Avenue at the home of Qawi Abdul-Rahman, a Philadelphia defense attorney who unsuccessfully ran in this year’s Democratic primary for Common Pleas Court judge.

Mr Abdul-Rahman has been publicly reprimanded by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Inquirer reported last March that challenges to Mr Abdul-Rahman’s candidacy had been filed, and when it was reported that Philadelphia Undersheriff Tariq El-Shabazz had been representing criminal defendants, in an apparent violation of regulations, and someone who ran unsuccessfully for District Attorney in 2017, the newspaper stated:

In January 2022, El-Shabazz entered an appearance in another gun case being prosecuted by the Philly DA’s Office. In December, a new lawyer took over the case, Qawi Abdul-Rahman. Abdul-Rahman’s law office address and phone number are the same as El-Shabazz’s.

While the newspaper did not state or imply that the suspect is Mr Abdul-Rahman’s son, Philadelphia Magazine reporter Victor Fiorillo, who is certainly no evil reich-wing conservative, wrote:

Several sources have alleged that the person arrested is the son of Abdul-Rahman. On Monday, just after the press conference, I asked Abdul-Rahman via text if the person arrested is, indeed, his son. He called me right away. “You wanna find out what I’m really about?” he told me. “Text or call me one more time, and you’ll find out what I’m really about.”

While Mr Fiorillo wasn’t quite able to give us Mr Abdul-Rahman’s voice inflection, that sure sounds like a warning!

Back to the Inquirer. After investigating contacts the suspect made with terrorist groups, more was discovered:

But the investigation into the teen entered a new phase over the past several weeks after he began amassing equipment including tactical gear, wiring, chemicals, and devices often used as detonators, Maguire said.

FBI agents surveilled him as he bought materials to make homemade bombs on Aug. 7, and on Aug. 8, U.S. Customs and Border Protection “provided records revealing 14 international shipments of military and tactical gear” to his house, prosecutors said in a statement. They added that he’d also taken steps toward assembling them into explosives and testing them in recent weeks.

“These purchases quickly escalated this case into a threat and a priority for our office,” Maguire said. “This was now a situation where we believe public safety was at risk.”

As agents descended on his home Friday, they found what Maguire described as a “significant number” of firearms but no completed bombs in the house. She declined to elaborate on whom those guns belonged to or where they were stored.

Let’s be clear here: if the suspect, who might be the elder Mr Abdul-Rahman’s son, but was, at any rate, living in his house, received “14 international shipments of military and tactical gear” to his house, those shipments were received at the elder Mr Abdul-Rahman’s house! Mr Abdul-Rahman is an attorney, and had to know that receiving such shipments was probably illegal.

Did the elder Mr Abdul-Rahman know that there were a “significant number” of firearms in his home?

If the juvenile suspect is Mr Abdul-Rahman’s son, it’s hardly a surprise that a father would be protective of his son. But as an attorney, he must also be aware of the limitations involved in that, and the fact that the evidence recovered was recovered in his own home. Was he stupid? Was he clueless? Was he ignorant of what someone living in his own home was doing?

There’s more to be learned, and revealed in this case, but one thing is clear: Islamist terrorism isn’t somehow restricted to the Middle East!