Federal authorities declined to pursue a case against Jose Pimentel, who New York authorities say sought to
kill US military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. (REUTERS)
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said today that the NYPD had to take down the “al Qaeda sympathizer” accused of plotting to bomb police stations and post offices in the New York area because he posed an “imminent threat.”
“There was no question that we had to take this case down,” he said. “This was an imminent threat.”
Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Jose Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan. Pimentel also talked of bombing a police station in Bayonne, NJ, Kelly said.
MOTHER OF ALLEGED HARLEM BOMB PLOTTER APOLOGIZES FOR SON, THANKS NYPD
“He was in fact putting this bomb together,” Kelly said. “He was drilling holes and it would not have been appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb.”
Kelly said the bomb that the NYPD built and blew up as part of a demonstration was an exact replica of the device Pimentel had constructed.
“We went to places where he bought these items and used the materials he used,” he said. “We picked a target and blew it up.”
Kelly also blamed the Internet for giving Pimentel access to his radical beliefs and bomb-making instructions.
“[The Internet] is the new Afghanistan – this is how people often become radicalized,” he said. “This man is a classic example of the self-radicalization process that we’ve seen people engage in on the Internet.”
Kelly said today that he was in fact in contact with federal agents leading up to Pimentel’s arrest.
“We’ve kept them informed of this case, along with the district attorney,” he said.
His comments came Monday as two law enforcement officials said federal authorities declined to pursue a case against Pimentel because they believed he was mentally unstable and incapable of pulling it off.
NYPD investigators sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as their undercover investigation of Pimentel unfolded, the officials said. Both times, the FBI concluded that he wasn’t a serious threat, they said.
The FBI concluded that 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 declined to comment Monday.
The 27-year-old suspect was being held after his arraignment Sunday on terrorism-related charges.
His lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client’s behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.
“I don’t believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe,” Zablocki said. “He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. … This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack.”
New York City authorities said that the FBI was involved in the case but did not specifically say it declined to pursue the charges.
Kelly said the NYPD worked very closely with federal authorities on the case.
“We just believed that we couldn’t let it go any further,” he said. “We had to act.”
With AP