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.
AA.org's M.I.A.
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We should start a list of famous AA.org alumnia who are MIA! Â And take the pains to try to invite them back to the site.
I’ll start with a few we haven’t seen here in awhile.
Craig A. Yope
Dezrtfish
YannyAnd…
drumroll please
ncscswitch! Â (I know he blew a gasket and left, but wasn’t that like 5 years ago?)
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Maybe their busy playing Axis and Allies.
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Switch and I came around the same time, I think, but he has departed some time ago. Which was sad because he would light the forums up and there’d always be something to talk about.
Fish comes once in a while, I suppose when he’s not deployed.
Haven’t seen Yanny in a minute.
There was also El Jefe, although I’m not sure he did much with A&A or other discussions except to drop some crazy political thing from a specious website.
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We should start a list of famous AA.org alumnia who are MIA! And take the pains to try to invite them back to the site.
I’ll start with a few we haven’t seen here in awhile.
Dezrtfish
YannyAnd…
drumroll please
ncscswitch! (I know he blew a gasket and left, but wasn’t that like 5 years ago?)
It’s hard to believe he’s been gone that long. He was a pioneer on these boards. And he played pretty well too. :-P :lol:
I learned much from the man.
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What about TG Moses VI?
TG hasn’t logged in for over two years.
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What about Caspian Sub, I looked back but it looks like he has only 5 posts? That doesn’t seem right.
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cystic crypt is another lost member and he had alot of posts.
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My site, I’ll open the wound. What about Craig Yope? What was his deal?
Was he one of those that had good lengthy posts but would just completely lose his head at times?
Wait, it’s starting to come back to me. Was he out of Reno? I think he wanted to meet up for a game once.
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Banned for repeatedly making flames and he is from Michigan. He made Mantlefan look like a Priest. We got a thread in Moderation known as the ‘Yoper file’.
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Oh so we’re keeping “files” on people now.
LOL wow… and Yoper’s sentence to exile is 2 years +, so that means it must have been a federal crime?
He hangs out at HBG, and contributes there.
Hmm,
WILD BILL hasn’t been around here in ages… No Timtheenchanter either.
And wasn’t there a guy named “on the bounce” ?
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TCnance!
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“WILD BILL hasn’t been around here in ages”
That is not true. He posts here, just look at his profile. At least look at peoples profile before putting them in the “missing” bucket.
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Heh, not like FBI files. There are conversation threads in the moderation forum about various things but like other boards here, conversations get buried in the backlog over time.
I’ll take a look as a refresher.
Oh so we’re keeping “files” on people now.
LOL wow… and Yoper’s sentence to exile is 2 years +, so that means it must have been a federal crime?
He hangs out at HBG, and contributes there.
Hmm,
WILD BILL hasn’t been around here in ages… No Timtheenchanter either.
And wasn’t there a guy named “on the bounce” ?
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“WILD BILL hasn’t been around here in ages”
That is not true. He posts here, just look at his profile. At least look at peoples profile before putting them in the “missing” bucket.
A MONTH is a long time to be gone, for a guy who used to post 4 or 5 times a week.
Also, do you have a list of names I can check against, so as not to list anyone that offends you? Leading to arbitrary editing.
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a44bigdog has over 15,000 posts…
Last online, May 13, 2011, 11:04:47 pm
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Oh so we’re keeping “files” on people now.
If i could have a look on yours, i might go for the 2012 gold patron !
:-D :-D
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I’ve probably forgotten more of the things that are in there, than most people have posted combine.
(Save the Jentlefan diaries)
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Bait!
Chill baby, chill.
Also, do you have a list of names I can check against, so as not to list anyone that offends you? Leading to arbitrary editing.
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Hey now! I’m just trying to keep things above board here.
IMO Calvinhobbesliker and Mantelfan are welcome back. :) But Dare I type those letters on the screen.
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Mantlefan needs more time. Whether that is time for him to cool off or for us to change is to been seen.
How is calvinhobbesliker?
I know about Hobbes, that guy and Bunnies are quite prolific A&A writers.
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