Metro

Terror bomb plotter arrested in NYC

An “al-Qaeda sympathizer” who plotted to blow up police cars and postal facilities in Manhattan as well as soldiers returning home from the war was arrested yesterday, just one hour away from finishing work on a lethal pipe bomb, officials said tonight.

Jose Pimentel, 27, described as a “lone wolf” with no ties to international groups, planned to carry out a one-man terror spree in retaliation for the US killing of Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in September, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a press conference.

“Once his bombing campaign began, Pimentel said, the public would know there were mujahadeen in the city to fight jihad here,” Kelly said.

Pimentel had been on the NYPD’s radar for two years but police swooped in and arrested him at a Washington Heights apartment yesterday afternoon because the would-be bomber was about to create a working device, the commissioner said.

Pimentel was stopped before he could build any pipe bombs, but police created a duplicate device based on his plans and detonated it. In a video shown to reporters, the explosion tears through the inside of a car, blasting the doors open.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Pimentel was not part of a larger terrorism plot. Pimentel’s was the 14th terror attack thwarted by the NYPD since the 9/11 attacks, the mayor said, and justifies the city’s counter-terrorism efforts.

“This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city … this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on,” Bloomberg said.

Pimentel is charged with conspiracy, first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.

Pimentel is a native of the Dominican Republic but is a legal US citizen, Bloomberg said. He lived most of his life in Manhattan but spent five years in Schenectady, where he first came to the attention of law enforcement through postings he made on a website associated with al-Awlaki in 2009.

Pimentel also maintained his own website “True Islam,” where he encouraged violence against America and posted bomb-making information — including instructions that he himself used to make his own bombs, entitled “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” according to the criminal complaint.

Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: “People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare.”

Pimentel began discussing plans to make a bomb on Sept. 7 and said he wanted to target government buildings, police stations in banks, in a conversation with a confidential informant that was recorded by police, according to the complaint.

By October 18 Pimentel had allegedly moved on to talking about blowing up returning soldiers and their families. He then bought the elbow piping joints, batteries, matches Christmas lights and other materials he’d need to make the bombs at a Bronx Home Depot, and began practicing making the devices over the following weeks, police said.

Cops set up video surveillance in the informant’s apartment where Pimentel practiced making the devices, police said in the complaint. When they made the arrest yesterday afternoon, Pimentel said he was about an hour away from completing a working bomb, police said.

According to the criminal complaint, after Pimentel was arrested he told police, “Islamic law obligates all true Muslims to wage war against the United States in response to the United States invasion of Muslim lands.”

Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline “it was appropriate to proceed under state charges.”

— with AP

This photo supplied by police shows alleged terror plotter Jose Pimentel creating the bomb.

This photo supplied by police shows alleged terror plotter Jose Pimentel creating the bomb.

Components of the pipe bomb Pimentel was trying to make.

Components of the pipe bomb Pimentel was trying to make. (EPA)