Thaindian News

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) — New York City police officers on Saturday afternoon arrested an ‘al-Qaeda sympathizer’ who was allegedly plotting to bomb police patrols and American soldiers, officials announced during a late night news conference on Sunday.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 27-year-old Jose Pimentel, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic who lives in the northern end of Manhattan, faces state terrorism-related charges over his alleged plot to bomb police patrols, postal facilities and soldiers returning from abroad.

“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. He represents exactly the kind of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller and his experts have warned about, as American military and intelligence agencies have eroded al-Qaeda’s ability to launch large-scale attacks.”

Bloomberg said the latest plot is similar to another lone wolf plot in 2004 in which two New Yorkers, angry over the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, plotted to bomb the Herald Square subway station. “Like the current case, the Herald Square plot was uncovered by the NYPD Intelligence Division,” he said.

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said his department became aware of Pimentel, a convert to Islam, in 2009. “Before returning to Washington Heights last year, he lived in Schenectady for about five years where he made even some like-minded friends nervous by his extremism,” he said.

Kelly said Pimentel had considered traveling to Yemen for terrorist training before returning to New York to become a martyr in the name of Jihad. “He talked about changing his name to Osama Hussein to celebrate his heroes Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein,” the Commissioner said.

Pimentel allegedly talked about killing U.S. military personnel returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly Marines and Army personnel. “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, New Jersey,” Kelly said.

Officials said Pimentel’s behavior ‘morphed’ from simply talking about terrorism to bomb-making. “Pimentel followed instructions from [senior al-Qaeda figure] Anwar al-Awlaki’s Inspire magazine to first acquire the bomb-making materials and then assemble them,” Kelly said. “He relied on a particularly notorious article called ‘How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom.”

Kelly said Pimentel acquired the readily available ingredients from Home Depot and other stores while being careful not to make all of the purchases from one location at the same time. “He wanted to avoid raising red flags,” he said.

When police arrested Pimentel at 3.30 p.m. local time on Saturday, he was already making his first bomb at his apartment. “He had already drilled holes into the elbow joints to accommodate timing devices when emergency service officers entered his apartment,” Kelly said, adding that he was taken into custody without incident.

Kelly said police had been tracking Pimentel since May 2009 and decided to intervene when he began putting together his first explosive device. “We did not want him to trigger it, even accidentally, and put neighbors and others at risk,” the Commissioner said.

Police believe Pimentel planned to test the effectiveness of the bombs by first planting them in mailboxes and detonating them. “Once his bombing campaign began, Pimentel said, the public would know that there were mujahideen in the city to fight jihad here,” Kelly said.

Authorities believe Pimentel accelerated his plans to carry out bomb attacks following the death of al-Awlaki. The U.S.-born radical Islamic preacher was killed in late September in a U.S. airstrike near the Yemeni town of Khashef in Al Jawf governorate.

“We remain the nation’s financial capital. Its communications capital, and a world stage on which terrorists can get the most bang for their buck,” Kelly said during Sunday’s press conference. “Thanks to outstanding work of the police officers involved and support from the district attorney, the buck stopped in Washington Heights [Saturday] afternoon.”