NYC terror suspect was building test bomb

An al-Qaida sympathizer was on the verge of putting his terror plans into action when New York City police swooped in to arrest him over the weekend, WNBC investigative reporter Jonathan Dienst told the TODAY show on Monday. 


Jose Pimentel told police in a video statement after his arrest that he had been about one hour away from completing a test bomb when he was arrested Saturday, Dienst reported. 


Pimentel was accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home.


Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a news conference Sunday the arrest of Pimentel, "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who the mayor said was 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.


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


The police commissioner said Pimentel was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.


"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.


But federal authorities on Monday said they declined to pursue the case against Pimentel  because they believed he was mentally unstable and incapable of pulling off the alleged plot, 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 27-year-old 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 on Monday. New York City authorities said that the FBI was involved in the case, but did not specifically say they declined to pursue the charges. 


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


Ten years after 9/11, New York remains a prime terrorism target. Bloomberg said at least 13 terrorist plots have targeted the city since the Sept. 11 attacks. No attack has been successful. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad is serving a life sentence for trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.


Pimentel, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad," Bloomberg said Sunday.


Job 24:17- For the morning [is] to them even as the shadow of death: if [one] know [them, they are in] the terrors of the shadow of death.


Psalms 73:19- How are they [brought] into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.