AP: FBI declined to pursue NYC bomb plot

Jose Pimentel is arraigned at Manhattan criminal court, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. / AP Photo/Jefferson Siegel

NEW YORK - U.S. authorities declined to pursue a case against an "al Qaeda sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police stations and post offices in the New York area because they believed he was mentally unstable and incapable of pulling it off, two law enforcement officials said Monday.

New York Police Department investigators sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as their undercover investigation of Jose Pimentel unfolded, the officials said. Both times, the FBI concluded that he wasn't a serious threat, they said.

The FBI concluded that Pimentel "didn't have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own," one of the officials said.

The officials were not authorized to speak about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI's New York office declined to comment Monday.

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New York authorities said Pimentel is an "al Qaeda sympathizer" motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. 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 also talked of bombing a police station in New Jersey, Kelly said.

"He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."

The 27-year-old suspect was being held after his arraignment Sunday on terrorism-related charges.

His lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client's behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.

"I don't believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe," Zablocki said. "He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. ... This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack."

New York City authorities said that the FBI was involved in the case but did not specifically say it declined to pursue the charges.

Kelly said the NYPD worked very closely with federal authorities on the case.

"We just believed that we couldn't let it go any further," he said. "We had to act."

[masmanz]

Most of the FBI's own so-called "terror cases" are not that great either. I guess they simply refused to get involved because this one would not help increase their funding.

[MichaelTheGenius]

Wow, this guy is so little threat that even the FBI doesn't think he's worth framing. How pathetic is that?

[Well_You_Aint_Me]

So if the DOJ, FBI, Homeland, NSA, etc. think you're an incompetent idiot you can get away with it.

That should cover most of the radical lefties on this site.

[expatriate2]

And each one of these inept agencies was created by a Republican president.

[gpkerslerjr]

Now billionaire bloom.....can claim: we were damn lucky we did't have to waste any more time and manpower on these anarchist scumbags in the streets, or we would have missed this dangerous terrorist, and he would have killed us all.......

[baileyccc]

Jose future looked so bright, how could he be converted to such a terrible act?

[expatriate2]

Just another example of a government that is broken from its judicial system to its law enforcement agencies. The sad thing is that those within government have learned to work with the broken system and have no plans to repair or reform it. As a result, we have no experts on anything, only varying degrees of ignorance.

[FoolKiller]

"He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb." He had a DRILL?!? Thank Heaven he didn't have a hammer too, or they would be claiming to have saved us from a nuke...

[Watson107]

Is story was damage control, right out of the TV show, BOSS with Kelsey Grammer. I am really wondering WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE NEWS MEDIA TODAY? This is a scam, Bloomburg ran this terriorst bomb story right when everyone was pointing a finger at him about the brutalities of the NYPD to the protesters in NY. Do we have to always learn about these self serving politicians in documentories, years later? Take a closer look at public officials before they ruin the lives of the people of America.

[Imthaid2]

Isn't it usually those that are mentally unstable that pull these things off? The FBI are a bunch of morons.

[stn_sage]

It is MY opinion, that the FBI does NOT waste it's time
pursuing anyone who really is a terrorist because it
takes too much effort and work! And, they need that
person to actually DO something in order to keep the
myth of world terrorism going which allows all nations
to build their countries into police states!
Besides, the FBI has more important things to do, like
gun-running and drug distribution capers!