Man accused of planning bomb attacks in New York
An “al-Qaeda sympathiser” accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City, as well as US troops returning home, is arrested on terrorism-related charges.
New York police arrested Jose Pimentel, 27, a follower of late Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, on suspicion of building a pipe bomb he planned to use against US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday.
Pimentel was charged with three terrorism-related counts and two other counts, court documents said.
New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a news conference the arrest of Jose Pimentel of Manhattan, “a 27-year-old al-Qaeda sympathiser” who the mayor said was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan.
He was under surveillance since May 2009 and considered New York police cars, a New Jersey police station and US post office among his potential targets, officials said.
Intense
As a reader of the online magazine Inspire, published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Pimentel took instructions from an article “How to Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom”, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told a news conference.
We think an event that really set him off was the elimination of Anwar al-Awlaki. Ray Kelly
“We think an event that really set him off was the elimination of Anwar al-Awlaki,” Kelly said. “His actions became a lot more intense after 30 September.”
A US drone strike killed Awlaki, a US citizen, in Yemen in late September, ending a two-year hunt. US intelligence called him the “chief of external operations” for al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch and a internet-savvy propagandist.
Commissioner Kelly said Pimentel “talked about changing his name to Osama Hussein to celebrate his heroes Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.”
