New York ‘lone wolf’ was one hour away from finishing his bomb
She also praised the New York Police Department, saying, “I think they handled it well.”
Officials with the NYPD, which conducted the undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment, said the department had to move quickly because Pimentel was about to test a pipe bomb made out of match heads, nails and other ingredients bought at neighborhood hardware and discount stores.
Two law enforcement officials said Monday that the NYPD’s Intelligence Division had sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as the investigation unfolded. Both times, the FBI concluded that Pimentel lacked the mental capacity to act on his own, they said.
The FBI thought Pimentel “didn’t have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own,” one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to speak about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI’s New York office and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan both declined to comment on Monday.
Pimentel’s lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, said his client was never a true threat.
“If the goal here is to be stopping terror … I’m not sure that this is where we should be spending our resources,” he said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the handling of the case Monday, saying the NYPD kept federal authorities in the loop “all along” before circumstances forced investigators to take swift measures using state charges.
“No question in my mind that we had to take this case down,” Kelly said. “There was an imminent threat.”
Added Kelly: “This is a classic case of what we’ve been talking about �� the lone wolf, an individual, self-radicalized. This is the needle in the haystack problem we face as a country and as a city.”
Authorities described Pimentel as an unemployed U.S. citizen and “al-Qaida sympathizer” who was born in the Dominican Republic. He had lived most of his life in Manhattan, aside from about five years in the upstate city of Schenectady, where authorities say he had an arrested for credit card fraud.
His mother said he was raised Roman Catholic. But he converted to Islam in 2004 and went by the name Muhammad Yusuf, authorities said.
Using a tip from police in Albany, the NYPD had been watching Pimentel using a confidential informant for the past year. Investigators learned that he was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida’s U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, police said.
Pimentel was under constant surveillance as he shopped for the pipe bombmaterials. He also was overheard talking about attacking police patrol cars and postal facilities, killing soldiers returning home from abroad andbombing a police station in Bayonne, N.J., authorizes said.
Sick to death of fiddly miniatures - I'm going back to basics
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This weekend my playing group and myself came to a unanimous decision:
We will no longer be using miniatures to play our Axis & Allies Games.
Frankly we don’t actually see a point in them, other than for Aesthetic purposes. Sure it’s nice to have little figures on the board, but after a while they become a tedious chore. For this reason we are switching to paper representation of units.
I’ve been toying around with a design and think they will be squares, printed on card, using NATO symbols. They already give the map a more authentic ‘military’ look, and are far easier to handle and move around.
Some may look at this as a type of sacrilege, but to be honest it gives so much more space on the board and increases the speed of the gameplay.
I was thinking of something along the lines of this:
The great thing about all this is that they are so cheap to produce, and I can make as many as I require - I also no longer have to bother myself with the concern that colours do not match up with the latest incarnation of units, for that issue will now become irrelevant
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I play EE, but you may notice the blocks often take more space than the pieces. Especially in Russia.
However get Neppa Games ETO which does have counters that would work for AA.
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You are right this is sacrilege
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@Imperious:
I play EE, but you may notice the blocks often take more space than the pieces. Especially in Russia.
However get Neppa Games ETO which does have counters that would work for AA.
I’ll not be using wooden blocks but rather squares of card, which can be stacked on top of one another for ease of space.
Speaking of block games: Have you played Eastern Front by Columbia Games? We played that also on saturday… I think it’s my new favourite game and will be securing a copy tomorrow (with Euro & western front as a bundle pack).
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@Brain:
You are right this is sacrilege
The gameplay wont change though, merely the aesthetics :evil:
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I have all these block games. East front, west front, medd front, too complicated and boring.
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What about Europe Englufed or Asia Engufled?
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I was talking about EE, I also have Asia Engulfed, but have not played it. I know it is pretty tedious game as well from the rules.
I have played EE many times. Its not nearly as fun as AA
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This takes me back to the old days of Squad Leader. I wish I could find that game in my closet.
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This takes me back to the old days of Squad Leader. I wish I could find that game in my closet.
How do you lose something in your closet?
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@Imperious:
I have all these block games. East front, west front, medd front, too complicated and boring.
I was actually surprised as to how uncomplicated Eastern Front actually was, for I thought it would be more so.
And boring? I have to disagree: the game has such depth and realism and yet is surprisingly easy to grasp.
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@Brain:
This takes me back to the old days of Squad Leader. I wish I could find that game in my closet.
How do you lose something in your closet?
The closet is in my parents home, over 100 miles away. I don’t think the game is still in the closet. But, I wish I could find it there.
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Yeah, my parents threw away a lot of my cool stuff too that I left in the garage.
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