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June 04, 2015

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ByDeniseLavoie TheAssociatedPress BOSTON A knife-wield- ing man killed by the ter- ror investigators who had him under surveillance was confronted because he had bought knives and talked of an imminent attack on "boys in blue," the FBI said Wednesday. Usaama Rahim plotted for at least a week to at- tack police, the FBI said in a complaint against a fam- ily member who was ar- rested Tuesday, the day Ra- him was shot to death. On Wednesday, the relative, David Wright, was ordered held on a charge of conspir- acy with intent to obstruct a federal investigation. The FBI said Rahim, who had previously dis- cussed beheadings, bought three fighting knives and a sharpener on or before May 26 and he told Wright on Tuesday he would begin trying to randomly kill po- lice officers. An anti-terror task force of FBI agents and Boston police, faced with an im- minent threat, confronted Rahim on a sidewalk and fatally shot him when he refused to drop his knife, authorities said. Headonyourchest' An affidavit written by an FBI agent assigned to Bos- ton's Joint Terrorism Task Force refers to a recorded conversation between Ra- him and Wright in which Wright made a comparison to "thinking with your head on your chest." The FBI said that was a reference to Is- lamic State propaganda vid- eos showing severed heads on the chests of beheading victims. The FBI affidavit said Ra- him initially told Wright about a plan to behead someone outside Massa- chusetts. On Sunday, Ra- him, Wright and an uniden- tified man met on a beach in Rhode Island to "discuss their plans," the FBI affida- vit said. "Wright indicated that he agreed with Rahim's plan and supported it," the affi- davit states. Authorities searched a home in Warwick, Rhode Island, on Tuesday and Wednesday but wouldn't confirm the search was re- lated to the investigation. They also wouldn't confirm how Rahim, 26, and Wright, 24, are related. Early Tuesday morning, Rahim called Wright and told him he had changed his plans and no longer planned to kill someone in another state, the affida- vit says. Instead, he said he was going to "go after" the "boys in blue," it says, an apparent reference to po- lice officers. During the recorded conversation, Rahim told Wright, "Yeah, I'm going to be on vacation right here in Massachusetts. ... I'm just going to, ah, go after them, those boys in blue. Cause, ah, it's the easiest target and, ah, the most common is the easiest for me," the af- fidavit says. 'Going on vacation' The FBI said the phrase "going on vacation" refers to committing violent jihad. Authorities allege that during that conversation, Wright advised Rahim to destroy his smartphone, wipe his laptop computer and prepare his will. On Wednesday, authori- ties moved swiftly to man- age perceptions of the shooting, which killed a black man whose family is well known among Muslims and African-Americans in Boston. Rahim's mother is a nurse at Boston University. His older brother, Ibrahim Rahim, is a scholar known for preaching after the Bos- ton marathon bombings that violence is anti-Islamic. Ibrahim Rahim initially posted a message on Face- book alleging police repeat- edly shot his brother in the back while he was on a cellphone calling their fa- ther for help. But his ver- sion unraveled Wednesday after police showed their video of the confrontation to community leaders. Darnell Williams, pres- ident of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, said he could "150 percent corroborate" the police ac- count. The images clearly show that Usaama Rahim "was not on a cellphone and was not shot in the back," Williams said. Police Commissioner William Evans said officers confronted Rahim because "military and law enforce- ment lives were at threat." UNDER SURVEILLANCE FB I: B os to n kn if em an t al ke d about attacking 'boys in blue' RICHARDSHIRO—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Americans are split over Hillary Clinton, polls suggest. By Julie Pace and Ken Thomas The Associated Press WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton plans to spend the summer building a case that Republicans are out of touch with the public. But many people aren't convinced she empathizes with them, either, polls suggest, in a potential early warning sign for the Democratic front-runner. Clinton's approach to defining the Republican field echoes one President Barack Obama used suc- cessfully in the 2012 cam- paign against GOP rival Mitt Romney, a rich man who struggled to make the common touch at times with his policies and per- sona. Scrutiny Yet average Ameri- cans appear to be split on whether Clinton can re- late to them, in the face of scrutiny about her fam- ily finances and the Re- publican argument that she and husband Bill, the former president, play by different rules and have amassed wealth in ways that are inconceivable for most people. About 47 percent of Americans said Clinton cares about people like them in a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday. That's down from 53 percent in the same poll last summer. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released the same day also found a slight de- cline in the past year on a similar question, with 49 percent saying Clinton "understands the problems of people like you" and 46 percent saying she doesn't. The dip in Clinton's rat- ings on attributes like em- pathy coincides with a de- cline in her overall favor- ability from the time she was Obama's secretary of state. Her current lev- els mirror how the pub- lic viewed her during her failed 2008 White House campaign. Dan Pfeiffer, a long- time Obama adviser who left the White House this spring, said it's too early for the numbers to cause anxiety in Clinton's Brook- lyn campaign headquar- ters. But he added that "if this trend doesn't reverse itself over the next many months, it should be a cause of concern." Empathy was a focus of Obama's re-election bid against Romney. The Dem- ocratic incumbent relent- lessly argued that Rom- ney's policies and personal wealth left him out of touch with most Americans. By Election Day, 81 percent of Americans who said they voted based on whether a candidate cared for people like them backed Obama, according to exit polls. Clinton campaign of- ficials say they care less about how Clinton is viewed in isolation on the question of empathy and more about how she is compared with spe- cific Republican challeng- ers. While no major polls have done such a head-to- head comparison, a Quin- nipiac survey last week found large numbers of Americans undecided on whether many Republi- can presidential hopefuls — among them Marco Ru- bio and Scott Walker — care about their needs. June 13 rally And the ABC News/ Washington Post poll had worrying signs for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, with 55 percent of Ameri- cans saying he doesn't un- derstand the problems of people like them. Clinton will use a June 13 rally to argue that the GOP field as a whole is out of touch on gay rights, im- migration, climate change and more. She has also been highlighting her dif- ferences with Republicans on economic issues, finan- cial reform and budget pri- orities. Polls: Americans split ov er w het her C lin to n cares about their needs POTENTIAL WARNING SIGN MARK GARFINKEL — THE BOSTON HERALD VIA AP Boston police investigate at the scene of a shooting Tuesday in Roslindale, Massachusetts. A man under surveillance by terrorism investigators was shot and killed by a police officer. By Robert Burns The Associated Press WASHINGTON At least 51 laboratories in 17 states and three foreign countries re- ceived potentially live an- thrax spores from the De- fense Department over the past decade, and the num- ber is likely to grow, Penta- gon officials said Wednesday. The scope of the problem remains unclear, but Dep- uty Defense Secretary Rob- ert Work told a news con- ference that the problem poses little risk to public health because the suspect anthrax was transported in very low concentrations. Work said no individu- als are known to have been infected with anthrax as a result of the mistaken ship- ments. He said the errors at the originating Army labo- ratory at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah were at least two-fold: a failure to fully inactivate, or kill, an- thrax spores through radi- ation, and a failure to con- firm through testing that the inactivation worked properly before packaging and shipping the samples. As recently as last Fri- day the Pentagon said live samples may have been sent to 24 labs in 11 states. On Wednesday, Work said the number of labs had risen to 51. "This number may rise," he said, as other batches of anthrax at four Defense De- partment labs are tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is leading an investigation of the matter. Last Friday, Work ordered a comprehensive review of laboratory procedures asso- ciated with killing live an- thrax for shipment to labs for research and other pur- poses, including for cali- brating biological threat sensors such as those used by a number of federal gov- ernment agencies, including the Pentagon. The scope of the prob- lem has grown almost daily since the Pentagon first ac- knowledged it publicly May 27. Among the government labs identified in recent days as having received the suspect anthrax were the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Mary- land and the Naval Sur- face Warfare Center in Vir- ginia, as well as a lab on the grounds of the Pentagon. Officials said that the Edgewood lab sent some of the samples it had received from Dugway to other labs in the U.S. On Tuesday, the Pentagon said potentially live anthrax samples had been mistak- enly sent to labs in Califor- nia, Virginia, Texas, Ten- nessee, Utah, Massachu- setts, Wisconsin, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Dela- ware and Washington state. Also receiving suspect sam- ples were labs in Australia, Canada and South Korea. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Sunday told re- porters while traveling in Asia that the mistaken shipments were an "unfor- tunate incident." 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