NEW YORK: New York authorities announced Sunday they had arrested and charged a US Al-Qaeda sympathizer for plotting to build pipe bombs to kill government workers and returning US troops.
City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said 27-year-old Jose Pimentel, a native of the Dominican Republic who became a US citizen and converted to Islam, had gleaned his bomb-making knowledge from an online magazine published by slain radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday Pimentel was targeting police, postal facilities and others and said he was a "lone wolf" without affiliation to foreign terrorist organizations. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy," said the mayor.
Kelly said Pimentel, though not affiliated with an outside group, was a follower of Awlaqi, who was killed in a US raid earlier this year.
In another high-profile, home-grown New York terror plot, Faisal Shahzad, a
Pakistani immigrant, was caught soon after his explosive device failed to detonate in busy Times Square on May 1, 2010. He pleaded guilty and said he was aiming to avenge deaths from US missiles fired from drones operating over Pakistan. He was sentenced to life behind bars
City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said 27-year-old Jose Pimentel, a native of the Dominican Republic who became a US citizen and converted to Islam, had gleaned his bomb-making knowledge from an online magazine published by slain radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday Pimentel was targeting police, postal facilities and others and said he was a "lone wolf" without affiliation to foreign terrorist organizations. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy," said the mayor.
Kelly said Pimentel, though not affiliated with an outside group, was a follower of Awlaqi, who was killed in a US raid earlier this year.
In another high-profile, home-grown New York terror plot, Faisal Shahzad, a
Pakistani immigrant, was caught soon after his explosive device failed to detonate in busy Times Square on May 1, 2010. He pleaded guilty and said he was aiming to avenge deaths from US missiles fired from drones operating over Pakistan. He was sentenced to life behind bars