NEW YORK — An “al-Qaeda sympathizer” who plotted to bomb police and post offices in New York City, as well as U.S. troops returning home, has been arrested on numerous terrorism- related charges, city officials said Sunday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a news conference the Saturday arrest of Jose Pimentel, 27, of Manhattan, who the mayor said was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The mayor said Pimentel, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, was “plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad.”
“He appears to be a total lone wolf,” the mayor said. “He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad.”
Instead, Bloomberg said, Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large attacks.
Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, is accused of having an explosive substance Saturday when he was arrested that he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public.
The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010 and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism and soliciting support for a terrorist act.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said a confidential informant had numerous conversations with Pimentel on Sept. 7 in which he expressed interest in building small bombs and targeting banks, government and police buildings.
Pimentel also posted on his website and on blogs his support of al-Qaeda and belief in jihad, and he promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.
