Surveillance tapes released in trial of suspected Chelsea bomber

Surveillance tapes of the chaos on West 23rd Street after a bomb went off in Chelsea last year and of a man alleged to be Ahmad Khan Rahimi leaving a suitcase with a bomb on West 27th Street were released by prosecutors Tuesday as Rahimi’s trial continued in Manhattan federal court.

The videos, introduced into evidence when the trial began on Monday, include footage of two bystanders who notice the suitcase on West 27th Street about 20 minutes after it was left next to a mailbox, inspect it, remove the pressure cooker bomb inside, put it on the sidewalk and walk away with the suitcase.

Police were later alerted to a pressure cooker with wires sitting on the sidewalk after the bomb detonated on West 23rd Street, and were able to remove the second bomb without injuries.

The bomb on West 23rd Street injured 30 people. Rahimi, 29, an Afghan-American from Elizabeth, New Jersey, who worked at a family-owned chicken restaurant, is accused of planting the two homemade bombs due to jihadist sentiments, and is separately charged in New Jersey with planting bombs there.

Prosecutors began their case with testimony from victims of the West 23rd Street blast, and some of the videos show pedestrians covering their ears and running when the bombs exploded.

During testimony on Tuesday, prosecutors introduced jihadist literature the government claims Rahimi accessed before planting bombs last September, including issues of al-Qaida’s online “Inspire” magazine with articles such as “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.”s

The author, identified as “The AQ Chef,” suggested the use of “spherical steel pellets” or nails in pressure cooker or pipe bombs for easy-to-make explosives, and said, “The pressure cooker is the most effective method.”

Another passage advised readers that the success of an attack didn’t necessarily matter, noting, “The open source jihad is America’s worst nightmare. ”