NYPD Arrests Pipe-Bomb Terror Suspect

Jose Pimentel, 27, arrested in Manhattan for constructing pipe-bomb with terrorist intentions

The suspect identifies with al Qaeda, even if al Qaeda does not identify with the suspect. He once tried to reach out to Anwar al-Awlaki, all the way up at the top of al Qaeda’s organization, but those attempts were not answered. So Jose Pimentel knew he had to make noise on his own. When al Awlaki was killed by America’s drones in September, Pimentel picked up his plans’ pace, as if to avenge the death of his hero. The police finally picked him up yesterday, with drill holes in the cylinder of a planned pipe-bomb, but they’d been watching him and waiting ever since 2009.

“We knew for the last two years he’s been reading a lot of jihadist information and talked a lot of inflammatory rhetoric,” said NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly. “But it appears at this juncture the death of Anwar al-Awlaki motivated him and made him increase his tempo.”

It was the cops in New York who got him—that’s where he was arrested and that’s where he’ll stand trial. But the charges, naturally enough, are federal: conspiracy to construct a bomb for terrorist purposes, along with possession of a bomb. His intended targets were U.S. service-members returned from the Middle East, as well as local post offices, on which he meant to test-run his explosives.