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.
Hooray…it's over!
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Football season is at a close. While I think last night’s game was free advertising for the new Star Trek film (called “In to Darkness”), I am SO looking forward to Feb 11th when Pitchers and catchers report. This leads into the greatest sports month period, MARCH.
1. Spring Training!
2. March Madness
3. Hockey season moves into pre-playoff mode (although with the shortened season, we are kind of there even if the games aren’t being played at that level yet).Sure, my Marlins were gutted, but I love baseball so much it really doesn’t matter. Every year I require myself to watch Bull Durham and Major League…it’s a ritual I set in place (much like Slapshot for hockey season).
And I’m putting everybody here on notice that you’ll need to participate in the Bigger Dance come April, via the best sports radio station I’ve ever heard, KJR 950AM in Seattle…
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I don’t know how you can be happy that football season is over! Football is by far the best pro sport to watch, and wayyyyyyy better than baseball. Baseball is soooooo boring!
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I can’t wait for Baseball season to be over.
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Until September who cares about baseball. Unless your a Cubs fan. You have to be excited early becauces they will be C(ompletely)U(useless)B(y)S(eptember).
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LETS GO TIGERS!!! :-D :-D :-D :-D
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Until September who cares about baseball. Unless your a Cubs fan. You have to be excited early becauces they will be C(ompletely)U(useless)B(y)S(eptember).
Says the Jets fan (which that rule applies to your team as well).
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Hey Jermofoot September is when the season starts the more accurate date for my Jets disintegration would be November/December.
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Yes, as an Eagles fan, I’m glad it’s over too.
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Hey Jermofoot September is when the season starts the more accurate date for my Jets disintegration would be November/December.
I know.
I was saying the Jets are useless before the season even starts.
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Yeah… well.
I’d love to talk smack, but I’m a raiders fan.
Let’s just say it’s been a bad DECADE, and hope that it’s not going to be two.
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Raiders suck and they will always suck. They have sucked since 1985. So it’s been almost 30 years of suckage.
You know it, everybody knows it.
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I know they lost in the AFC title game 2 years in a row but that is not exactly worthless. Try Detroit and Cleveland now thats tough.
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I go into sports hibernation after football season, with brief periods of alertness at the beginning of NFL free agency and the Draft. I wake up when training camp comes around.
I have lost faith in my Dallas Cowboys, mainly Jerry Jones and Tony Romo. They are good enough to beat any team on any sunday, but not a good enough organization to win at playoff time. They are built from the outside in and not the inside out, most of the cap money is spent on WRs, CBs and very little spent of the O-Line and D-line.
I’m not a fan of the team moving from a 34 defense to a 43 Tampa Two defense. They are taking Demarcus Ware, who is starting to suffer injuries, out of space on the outside and putting his hand on the ground as a DE; where he will be taking on Tackles that out weigh him by 50+ lbs.
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im telling you all, 2014 super bowl is going to my detroit lions. best team ever. their history is all i need to say about it
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LOL The Detroit Fails?
I love these stats.
The 2008 team became the only team in NFL history to lose all 16 regular season games since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978.
In the Superbowl Era: The Lions are one of four current NFL teams that have yet to qualify for the Super Bowl, and the team is 1-10 in post-season play during that period.
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I…I…
okay so we blow major 8====D
but at least we’re still breaking records. 0-16 for ever baby!!!
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I am a Ravens fan, so you know how hysterical I was during that game. Thought the 49ers were going to do an epic comeback from that blackout.
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thanks for the clarification thought you were a cow fan
sorry that was bad
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