(Image Source: New York Post)

BY JIM FLINK
ANCHOR LAUREN GORES

Lone wolf?  Or harmless hack? New York City police arrest a Dominican native in New York -- and charge him with allegedly plotting to blow up parts of the Big Apple.

Authorities say Jose Pimentel was targeting U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and wanted to blow up post offices and police cars.  
 

New York One reports on Pimentel’s alleged plans.

“The commissioner says police made the arrest because Pimentel was ready to carry out his plan.  He was allegedly building bombs like this, following instructions from the radical cleric Anwar al-Alaqi’s militant magazine.  Police made a similar device and detonated it...(explosion.)”

WNYW talked with the suspect’s mother, who says, her son converted to Islam two years ago, and his behavior changed.  At first, it seemed to bring him peace.

“I asked her if she knew what he was up to on the computer, because he ran a website which he called True Islam, in which he railed against the U.S. government, and he incited people to violence against America.  She said it was a computer she shared, but she didn’t have his password and didn’t know what he was up to.”

The New York Daily News reports, Pimentel, who went by the alias Muhammad Yusuf, told an informant posing as an Al Qaeda sympathizer he would show “there was mujahedeen in the city ready to fight jihad here.”
And he allegedly backed up his threats with videos on his website.

“In a Nov. 4 video, he is seen following instructions to scrape 700 matchheads and use the powder in explosives he planned to pack with nails. Over the weekend, he began drilling holes in an elbow joint, which he connected with wires to an alarm clock, Christmas tree lights and 9-volt battery. He told cops he ‘was about one hour away from completing it’ when they arrested him.”

But on CNN, Pimentel’s defense attorney calls the prosecution misguided. Noting, Pimentel had a very public online profile, which isn’t exactly how most lone wolf terrorists operate.

“I have no doubt that, what I believe were called, sleeper cells in the United States. People who are plotting who will commit terrorist attacks.  Perhaps those are the people they should be going after.  Not people who are talking about their beliefs and plans on a public forum.”

And New York Magazine notes, there may be some truth to that. Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI was directly involved in the arrest.

“But more information on the seriousness of Pimentel's threat, as suggested by the absence of the FBI in the investigation, could indicate that the arrest was more insignificant than it appeared ... the Justice Department was aware of the investigation, but was not involved in the arrest because of its rushed nature.”

And Talking Points Memo says, not only wasn’t the FBI or DOJ involved, both had been tracking Pimentel for two years, and did nothing, declining to take the case -- several times.