Bombing Suspect's 'Journal' Recovered, Officials Say

A "journal" belonging to New York City bombing suspect Ahmad Rahami has been recovered by authorities, two federal officials told ABC News.

The writings were apparently on Rahami when he allegedly engaged in a firefight with police and the pages were actually shot through with a bullet. The officials said that in them, Rahami references the late American al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whose sermons and writings have been linked to a number of terrorist attacks and plots in the U.S.

As of late Monday, authorities had not determined a motive for Rahami, who has been linked to bombings over the weekend in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea and in New Jersey, as well as a number of unexploded devices. Though two of the explosives were housed in pressure cookers, as was the case in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the officials said there was no mention in Rahami's purported writings of the perpetrators of that attack, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Rahami has been charged with attempted murder related to the shootout with police just before he was apprehended Monday.

Michele McPhee is a Boston-based freelance journalist and frequent ABC News contributor.