NOTE The following text is a quote:
manhattanda.org/press-release/da-vance-jose-pimentel-pleads-guilty-state-terrorism-charge
For Immediate Release
February 19, 2014
DA VANCE: JOSE PIMENTEL PLEADS GUILTY TO STATE TERRORISM CHARGE
Defendant Constructed Pipe Bombs, Targeted Civilians, United States Marines, and Soldiers Returning from Combat
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., announced the guilty plea of JOSE PIMENTEL, a/k/a “Muhammad Yousuf,” a/k/a “Yusuf,” 29, for building improvised explosive devices to detonate in Manhattan, intending to target United States military personnel and civilians. The conviction was the result of a year-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s Investigation Division and the New York City Police Department. PIMENTEL pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the First Degree as a Crime of Terrorism, and is expected to be sentenced on March 25, 2014.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., said: “Manhattan continues to be the symbol of much that terrorists hate about the United States, so we remain a principal world target for terrorist attacks, both at home and from abroad.
“In the wake of September 11, 2001, New York lawmakers passed a state anti-terror law, designating as a crime of terrorism any crime of violence, or any criminal conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, that is committed with intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population. In December 2012, my Office secured the first conviction under this law against a terrorist, defendant Ahmed Ferhani. Today, defendant Jose Pimentel admitted to planning a terrorist attack using a pipe bomb. His violent ideology, and his plan to implement that ideology, came in least in part from Inspire Magazine, an Al Qaeda playbook.
“Pimentel’s conviction, and Ferhani’s before him, reminds us that the threat against us from home-grown terrorists is very real. We must and will remain vigilant and do everything we can to prevent future terror attacks, within the strictures of our system of laws. Along with our partners at the NYPD and in the federal government, we have been entrusted by New Yorkers to do just this, it is what we did in the Pimentel case, and this is what we have and will continue to do.”
NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton said: “This case highlights the well-established efforts of law enforcement and prosecutors in bringing about the arrest of a dangerous individual. This was a lone wolf who formulated a significant part of his terror plot through the use of the Internet. Fortunately this threat was thwarted through the coordinated intelligence and investigation.”
As admitted by the defendant in his guilty plea and according to documents filed in court, in October and November 2011, JOSE PIMENTEL collected components to build pipe bombs. Following a year-long investigation, PIMENTEL was arrested on November 19, 2011, by the NYPD Bomb Squad. The defendant had pipes with drilled holes; incendiary powder; electronic circuits that would have been used as ignition devices; clocks; and nails that would have been used to as shrapnel upon explosion. Each of the components seized was proscribed in a step-by-step guide in Al Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine on how to make a bomb designed to maximize casualties.
PIMENTEL also maintained his own website that contained links to bomb-making recipes. His website strongly advocated violence against United States citizens and government agencies, including police stations, political facilities, embassies, and airports.
According to documents filed in court, PIMENTEL made the following statements in recorded phone conversations:
• “That is what I really want to get into because it’s so cheap and it could do a lot of damage… and then that’s something worth going to jail for, you know. Like, if you get caught because you blew up half of a side of a police station.” Statement recorded on September 7, 2011.
• “You can just blow up random cars here and there.” Statement recorded on September 7, 2011.
• “We really have no excuses as Muslims here, you know, like, as jihadi Muslims in the West, we don’t have any excuse for not to be blowing shit up, and being, doing like how we doing bro. At the end of the day, you know what I’m saying, when you can make a bomb with like 20 to 30 to 40 dollars.” Statement recorded on October 18, 2011.
• “You know we could just take down a building with that, with one of them joints that we making anyways. All we got to do is put it in the, in the basement.” Statement recorded on November 19, 2011.
• “And I was thinking, like, this is what we should do: if we put it, the car has to be facing the direction that we’re going to exit. You feel me? That way, as soon as it blows off, blows up, we can just leave. You feel me? And we should put it in a bag that doesn’t look too suspicious, like a garbage bag.” Statement recorded on November 19, 2011.
In an unrelated case, on March 15, 2013, defendant Ahmed Ferhani was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in New York County Supreme Court to terror-related charges for plotting to bomb synagogues in Manhattan.
Assistant District Attorneys Deborah Hickey, Eli Cherkasky, Sophi Jacobs, John Chiara, Brian Weinberg, and former Assistant District Attorney Brian Fields prosecuted this case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Daniel Brownell, Chief of the Rackets Bureau, and Executive Assistant District Attorney David Szuchman, Chief of the Investigation Division. Trial Preparation Assistants William Arsenault, Kristin Schwam, and Ra’Anaa Samad assisted with the case.
District Attorney Vance thanked NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton and members of the Intelligence Division and Counter-Terrorism Bureau, including the following individuals: Inspector Paul Mauro, Detective Kevin Branzetti, Detective Sean Foley, Detective Laurence Perkin, former Detective Robert Roloph, and Analyst Ian Rosenberger. District Attorney Vance also thanked the New York City Bomb Squad for their assistance, including Lieutenant Mark Torre and Detective Paul Perricone.
Defendant Information:
JOSE PIMENTEL, a/k/a “Muhammad Yousuf,” a/k/a “Yusuf,” D.O.B. 11/8/1984
New York, NY
Convicted:
• Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the First Degree as a Crime of Terrorism, a class B felony, one count
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