November 20, 2011 7:28 PM

NYC mayor: al Qaeda sympathizer arrested



This police photo shown at a news conference in New York on Sunday, Nov. 20 2011 shows who authorities say is Jose Pimentel making a bomb. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

CBS/AP) Updated 9:57 PM EST

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday an "al Qaeda sympathizer" who plotted to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home has been arrested on numerous terrorism-related charges.

Bloomberg announced at a news conference the Saturday arrest of 27-year-old Jose Pimentel of Manhattan, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic.

The mayor said Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad." But authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.

"He appears to be a total lone wolf," Bloomberg said.

Pimentel was motivated by his resentement of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, fueled by al Qaeda propaganda, the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad." However, Bloomberg said Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.


Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, is accused of having an explosive substance Saturday when he was arrested that he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least a year, first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act. He was to be arraigned later Sunday.

A criminal complaint was filed by the Manhattan District Attorney, which stated that Pimental had a web site whose article is titled "Why Osama bin Laden is the leader of the Believers," which said: "People have to understand that America and its allies are legitimate targets in warfare. This includes, facilities such as army bases, police stations, political facilities, embassies, CIA and FBI buildings, private and public airports, and all kinds of buildings where money is being made to help fund the war."

Read the criminal complaint http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/20/bloomberg-lone-wolf-arrested-on-terror-charges/jose-pimentel_complaint/

The complaint reveals the Pimentel made numerous incriminating statements to a confidential informant during a 12-month investigation. On Sept. 7, Pimentel allegedly told the informant he was interested building small bombs targeting government or police buildings and banks. Three weeks later, he allegedly gave the informant a flash drives containing two bomb-making manuals.


Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly holds a component of a mocked up pipe bomb, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. (Credit: AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)


With the informant, Pimentel bought bomb components depicted in articles in the al Qaeda's online magazine "Inspire," including a clock at a 99-cent store in Manhattan and a elbow piping, work gloves, and Christmas lights at a Home Depot in the Bronx. Following the instructions in "Inspire," Pimentel allegedly drilled holes in the three pipes, scraped the match heads "incendiary" powder, and used the Christmas lights as detonator wire, according to the complaint.

"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.

The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady.

Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57328403/nyc-mayor-al-qaeda-sympathizer-arrested/

Some our people forget (donde estan parados) they are guests in a nation that offers them freedoms that can be retrieved if the prevailing laws are violated.


Now this fellow Pimentel - if he is found guilty will be stripped of his naturalized citizenship, then sentenced and may wind up in Guatanamo, Cuba.

Wow, you think he should have set out for Cuba instead from the beginning. There he would have all the liberties that proletariats deserve or are permitted by Comandante Castro, the wise one and his brother, the new Big Brother.

Freedom is nothing to be played with. Go and make bombs in Cuba or China, or Russia or Myanmar and see what the "due proces" there is - over yonder? Off with the head! Double quick~
No second guessing, do not pass GO, go directly to the dungeon and wait for swift justice, red style.

This police photo shown at a news conference in New York on Sunday, Nov. 20 2011 shows who authorities say is Jose Pimentel making a bomb. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Pimentel, of Manhattan, a 27-year-old U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, was arrested Saturday for allegedly plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home.

Credit: AP Photo/Louis Lanzano



http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-201_162-10010321.html#ixzz1eJf5CBf8

What a nut There are always a few running loose in every State, city and county. Just hope they catch them before they injure someone.

'Lone wolf' terror suspect arraigned in New York


By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 8:44 AM EST, Mon November 21, 2011



New York (CNN) -- A New York man whom authorities say once pondered changing his name to Osama Hussein to honor his personal heroes -- Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein -- remained jailed Monday on bomb-related charges in what police described as a plot to attack police, military personnel and postal facilities.

Police arrested Jose Pimentel, 27, on Sunday at the apartment of a confidential informant in the case when a video camera showed him drilling holes in the pipes that would become the casings for bombs, according to the criminal complaint in the case.

Pimentel allegedly told police he was an hour away from completing his first bomb when he was arrested, according to the complaint.

"Pimentel's behavior morphed from simply talking about such acts to actions -- namely, bomb making," New York police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

He was arraigned late Sunday night in a New York court on state charges of possession of a bomb for terrorism, conspiracy as a crime of terrorism, soliciting support for a terrorist act, being a felon in possession of a weapon and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief and arson, according to the criminal complaint.

He planned to attack police officers, patrol cars and service members returning from service abroad, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

"The suspect was a so-called lone wolf, motivated by his own resentment of the presence of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as inspired by al Qaeda propaganda," Bloomberg said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."

New York authorities have communicated with federal authorities on the case, but even though Pimentel's alleged targets were federal troops and facilities, his case will be handled in New York courts, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.

His attorney, Joseph Zablocki, said the case against his client is nowhere near as strong as authorities say.

"As they admit, he has a very public online profile, and that flies in the face of everything that they've said," Zablocki said at the hearing. "This is not the way you go about committing terrorist attacks."

Pimentel had a "very active and very public online profile," citing the website TrueIslam1, prosecutors said.

After his arrest, Pimentel told police that he believes Islamic law requires Muslims to war against the United States, including assassinations, according to the criminal complaint against him.

Pimentel's uncle Luis Saverino told CNN affiliate WABC that his sister's son lived with him and that he had no idea what his nephew was up to inside his bedroom, which he always kept locked.

Kelly said Pimentel is a follower of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical U.S.-born cleric who rose to become a top figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula before being killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen this year.

He allegedly tried to contact al-Awlaki directly before the cleric's death, but never got a response, according to officials.

In August, the suspect allegedly decided to carry out the bomb plot, Kelly said. He "jacked up his speed" after al-Awlaki's death on September 30, according to the police commissioner.

"We knew for the last two years, he's been reading a lot of jihadist information and talked a lot of inflammatory rhetoric," Kelly said of Pimentel. "But it appears at this juncture the death of Anwar al-Awlaki motivated him and made him increase his tempo."

Pimentel bought ingredients at Home Depot and other stores for the three bombs that he was working to make, mindful to shop around so as not to "raise red flags," according to the police commissioner.

He allegedly planned to test an explosive device in a mailbox before using it against other targets. His aim, the police commissioner said, was to show there were "mujahedin" -- or Islamic militants -- in the city ready to wage "jihad."

An unemployed native of the Dominican Republican and a U.S. citizen, Pimentel had lived most of his life in Manhattan, except for five years in Schenectady, New York. He'd had been monitored by authorities since 2009 and his extreme positions "made even some of his like-minded friends nervous," said Kelly.

The commissioner said Pimentel even talked about changing his name to Osama Hussein -- in honor of his now deceased "heroes," longtime al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

He allegedly learned how to make a pipe bomb after reading an article entitled "How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom" in Inspire, the al Qaeda terrorist network's English-language online propaganda, recruiting and training magazine.

The issue that came out just before al-Awlaki's death emphasized that al Qaeda supporters in the West should take matters into their own hands and launch attacks themselves.

"He was a reader of al Qaeda's slick online magazine Inspire -- and inspire him it did," Vance said. "His stated desire to attack our servicemen and women ... could have come from an al Qaeda playbook."

CNN national security analyst Frances Townsend said it seemed odd that federal authorities were not involved in the case, particularly given the targets.

"The feds may have been able to help here," she said. "That being said, they had a successful arrest and we'll see what we can learn from it."

CNN's Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/21/us/new-york-terror-case/?hpt=wo_c2


Related:

Hamilton Heights Man Arraigned On Terror Plot Charges
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/151129/hamilton-heights-man-arraigned-on-terror-plot-charges

Suspect in New York Bomb Plot Left an Online Trail

By JAMES BARRON and JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

Published: November 21, 2011




The would-be terrorist accused of plotting to build and set off bombs in New York left a trail of articles and links online that the authorities had followed as they say he went from thought toward action, a step they say he took only in the last few weeks.


The suspect, Jose Pimentel, praised Osama bin Laden in posts on his blog. He also tried to justify the 9/11 attacks and said that Army bases, police stations and airports were at risk. “People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare,” he wrote in May.

He posted a photograph of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who became a strident voice for radical Islam and a top Qaeda propagandist. Raymond W. Kelly, the New York police commissioner, said Mr. Awlaki’s death in a drone strike in Yemen on Sept. 30 had refocused Mr. Pimentel’s own timetable for going on the attack.

Mr. Pimentel, a convert to Islam who was also known as Muhammad Yusuf, cited articles from Inspire, Al Qaeda’s online magazine. One article, with the headline, “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” was said to have been used by Mr. Pimentel in constructing his pipe bombs.

“My Muslim brother,” the article said, “we are conveying to you our military training.” It said readers could take the step-by-step instructions from the article “right into your kitchen to relieve you of the difficulty of traveling to us.”

The article said that the parts for a homemade bomb can be “easily disposed of if the enemy searches your home. Sniffing dogs are not trained to recognize them as bomb-making ingredients.”

“Buying these ingredients does not raise suspicion.”

But for Mr. Pimentel, 27, it did. The police had followed him to what a criminal complaint called “a 99-cent store in Manhattan” where he bought an alarm clock “similar to the clock pictured in the bomb-making article.” The police were on his trail a few days later when he went to the Home Depot in the Bronx to buy two other items mentioned in the Inspire article: pipe and Christmas lights.

He did not know it, but he had been under police surveillance for more than two years. By the time he was arrested on Saturday, he had come close to completing at least three bombs, the authorities said. Mr. Kelly said Mr. Pimentel had planned to test his abilities by detonating mailboxes before going on a bombing campaign around the city.

“Pimentel talked about killing U.S. military personnel returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly Marines and Army personnel,” Mr. Kelly said. “He talked about bombing post offices in and around Washington Heights and police cars in New York City, as well as a police station in Bayonne, N.J.

“Once his bombing campaign began, Mr. Pimentel said the public would know that there were mujahedeen in the city to fight jihad here.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly said, however, that Mr. Pimentel was not part of a conspiracy, had no known contacts abroad and, in the mayor’s words, “appears to be a total lone wolf.”

(Continues below)

(Continued)


A native of the Dominican Republic and a naturalized American citizen, Mr. Pimentel had spent much of his life in Manhattan, except for five years in Schenectady, N.Y., the authorities said. While upstate, his extremist remarks “made even some like-minded friends nervous,” Mr. Kelly said, noting that Mr. Pimentel considered changing his name to Osama Hussein “to celebrate his heroes.”

Mr. Pimentel spoke about traveling to “Yemen for training before returning to New York to become a martyr in the name of jihad,” Mr. Kelly said. While Mr. Kelly noted that Mr. Pimentel never went to Yemen, at one point Mr. Pimentel had e-mailed Mr. Awlaki in an attempt to open a line of communication. The cleric did not respond, the authorities said.

The intelligence division of the New York Police Department routinely asks smaller departments outside the city for help in identifying would-be terrorists, and it was through this network that the New York police learned of Mr. Pimentel around May 2009, Mr. Kelly said. The Police Department then began doing surveillance on him, the authorities said.

In January 2010, Mr. Pimentel followed his former wife back to New York, officials said, and at some point began maintaining the Web site trueislam1.com. Along the way, Mr. Pimentel began making incriminating statements to an informant who was working with the police, investigators said. Those conversations were recorded.

Mr. Pimentel kept the confidential informant up to date on his progress as he bought the parts for the bombs. The criminal complaint says the bomb-making sessions sometimes took place at the apartment of the informant.

The police videotaped Mr. Pimentel in the informant’s apartment on West 147th Street on Saturday as he drilled holes in three pipes, according to the criminal complaint. That was when the police, including members of the bomb squad, moved in and arrested him in the apartment.

“We weren’t going to wait around to figure out what he wanted do with his bombs,” a law enforcement official said. Mr. Pimentel lived with an uncle on West 137th Street, in Hamilton Heights. The uncle said on Sunday that the only recent change he noticed in his nephew was his conversion to Islam. On Monday, Mr. Pimentel’s mother, Carmen Sosa, apologized to the city — “I’m sorry about my son,” she said at one point as she faced reporters in the hallway of the apartment building. She also thanked the police.

But she said, in Spanish, “My son is not a terrorist.” She added, in English, “My son was like an normal boy, like a normal guy” who had never expressed animosity toward the United States.

“He likes the way of the Muslims,” she said, explaining that he had converted from Roman Catholicism. She also said, “In the beginning, he wasn’t fanatic. He was a regular Muslim.”

Reporters shouted questions, asking if her son had ever talked about Saddam Hussein or Bin Laden or had every said he wanted to harm Americans in the military, as the criminal complaint alleged. She answered each question no.

That was also her answer when she was asked if she had a suspicion about who the confidential informant might have been. “My son has his own friends,” she said. “I don’t know them.”

One reporter asked if Mr. Pimentel had deserved to be arrested.

“Deserves is a strong word,” she said. “It’s difficult to say. Justice has to be done.” Mr. Pimentel faces charges of criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree as a crime of terrorism as well as other charges, including conspiracy as a crime of terrorism.

At his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday night, Mr. Pimentel, who wore a black T-shirt and baggy pants, was ordered held without bail. An assistant district attorney, Brian Fields, said Mr. Pimentel had been about an hour from completing the construction of his explosive devices when he was arrested.

The case is unusual in that it marks the second time this year that the Police Department and the Manhattan district attorney’s office have brought terrorism-related charges in state court, which in the past have been prosecuted almost exclusively in federal courts.

Mr. Kelly has, since the Sept. 11 attacks, frequently criticized the federal government’s counterterrorism capabilities, and he has built up his department’s counterterrorism program.

On Sunday, Mr. Kelly said that the Justice Department had been aware of the case against Mr. Pimentel. But he suggested that the Police Department had brought the case without the Justice Department because of how quickly the case came together at the end.

“We had to act quickly yesterday because he was in fact putting this bomb together, drilling a hole, and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with the bomb,” Mr. Kelly said.

A person who was briefed on the discussions between the Police Department and Justice Department, however, said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had declined to become involved with the case against Mr. Pimentel because of issues the F.B.I. had with it. The person, who insisted on anonymity, declined to elaborate on what those issues were.

Adam Kaufmann, who heads the investigation division for the district attorney’s office, said, however, that “it was a better state case than federal” because while state law allows for Mr. Pimentel to be charged with a “a conspiracy of one person, the feds cannot charge a unilateral conspiracy.”




Matt Flegenheimer, Colin Moynihan, William K. Rashbaum and Scott Shane contributed reporting.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/nyregion/for-jose-pimentel-bomb-plot-suspect-an-online-trail.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Gitmo baby, Gitmo!

What he needs is a big whooping!!
its like a bad dog that bites the hand that feeds him!!
i wish he was born somewhre else!!

What can I say first it was Jose Padilla the P.R, Islamic Radical. now it's a D.R. Muslim Radical named Jose Pimentel. These fellows are either morons or they're manchurian canditates. No other explanation.

Pimentel should be grateful he's here, instead of trying to sabotage and conspire against its ctizens.

A Dominican named Muhammad Yusuf, What kind of mishigas is that?

Wait til his Bubbe finds out, Oh Vey !!!

He is a real meshuginah. That is all I can say.

And add to that a schlemiel - he really screwed up on this one !