New York ‘lone wolf’ was one hour away from finishing his bomb
She also praised the New York Police Department, saying, “I think they handled it well.”
Officials with the NYPD, which conducted the undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment, said the department had to move quickly because Pimentel was about to test a pipe bomb made out of match heads, nails and other ingredients bought at neighborhood hardware and discount stores.
Two law enforcement officials said Monday that the NYPD’s Intelligence Division had sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as the investigation unfolded. Both times, the FBI concluded that Pimentel lacked the mental capacity to act on his own, they said.
The FBI thought 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 and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan both declined to comment on Monday.
Pimentel’s lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, said his client was never a true threat.
“If the goal here is to be stopping terror … I’m not sure that this is where we should be spending our resources,” he said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the handling of the case Monday, saying the NYPD kept federal authorities in the loop “all along” before circumstances forced investigators to take swift measures using state charges.
“No question in my mind that we had to take this case down,” Kelly said. “There was an imminent threat.”
Added Kelly: “This is a classic case of what we’ve been talking about �� the lone wolf, an individual, self-radicalized. This is the needle in the haystack problem we face as a country and as a city.”
Authorities described Pimentel as an unemployed U.S. citizen and “al-Qaida sympathizer” who was born in the Dominican Republic. He had lived most of his life in Manhattan, aside from about five years in the upstate city of Schenectady, where authorities say he had an arrested for credit card fraud.
His mother said he was raised Roman Catholic. But he converted to Islam in 2004 and went by the name Muhammad Yusuf, authorities said.
Using a tip from police in Albany, the NYPD had been watching Pimentel using a confidential informant for the past year. Investigators learned that he 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, police said.
Pimentel was under constant surveillance as he shopped for the pipe bombmaterials. He also was overheard talking about attacking police patrol cars and postal facilities, killing soldiers returning home from abroad andbombing a police station in Bayonne, N.J., authorizes said.
A question about Schindler's list
-
I watched the movie and thought it was done very well (it would be tasteless to say that I enjoyed it). It was very accurate IMO of what it must have been like. There were 2 things that always bugged me about the movie though. 1. It never showed any non-jews. I didn’t think that was accurate (and I didn’t know for sure) because out of the 1300 he saved I figured he probably saved some gypsies, or others who were also victems. 2. At the end of the movie it said he died broke. That upset me because I felt if you were one of “schindler’s jews” (which is how they refer to themselves, don’t get crazy on me) you would feel an overwhelming need to help this man in any way.
I watched something on the History Channel today, in fact “Schindler’s Jews” did take care of him. He was a womanizing party animal who practicaly was burning $ as he got it, but they did take care of him. I was glad to see that the movie was not accurate as far as that goes, it would have reflected poorly on the Jews he saved if they didn’t (reguardless of him being bad with $). They had a few of the “Schindler’s Jews” on who’s only regret is that they could not do more. One in paticular was on the verge of tears, hoping he did everything he could have, but felt he may have come up short. I am not sure why at the end of the movie the director (who is jewish) chose not to tell the truth about what actualy happened, but rather said he died pennyless.
My question is, did he ONLY save jews? I didn’t get from what I watched that he only embraced Judaism, he just saw the horror that was going on and eventualy did all he could to stop it. Were there non-jews that were on his list? If so, it should have been mentioned. If not that the movie (and the documentry) are just being historicaly accurate.
Something I thought was in good taste, was that Oscar wanted to be buried in Isreal. He was, and there was a cross on his tombstone. The symbolism I think is great. This man started the whole thing just to make $, to that end he even became a Nazi. When he saw the horrors going on around him, he acted to protect people he did not share a common culture with. He saw the evil for what it was, and that the victems were not “rats”, but people. Him being buried in Isreal, with a cross on his tombstone, with Jews respecting him as a great person says a lot. Kind of gives you hope.
-
I think the movie showed as much as it could, without demonizing the main character.
It did show that he was banging his secretary alot, but this wasnt supposed to be emphasized, his charity towards the Jews was suppose to be the theme.
-
I liked that “Pianist” better… for me it demonstated how hard core Nazis could also be “human”… i hate those movies where Germans are portrayed as fully evil in everyway possible… just to yield that tear jerk when they destroy people… its too much technique in the “easy method” of producing hatred against them.
Another great movie on the subject was “conspiracy” which is one of my all time favorites…
-
Yes, Ill have to recomend conspiracy too. Excellant movie, get off the computer and go watch it right now.
-
I also have the older version of this which was done in 1977? Its called the “wannsee conference”… but its quite different… actually its more involved and moves very quickly because it captures every minute of the conference, while “conspiracy” is much more artistic with the characters and acting.Actually its got quite awesome acting IMO.
“pianst” is great in the sence that it shows how some people just dont want to get involved with how the germans treated the jews… until it came to really effect him and his family… after “putting” up with genocide eventually the inner fight to survive in a real way occurs in brody’s character and he does. Charming movie.
-
@Imperious:
I liked that “Pianist” better… for me it demonstated how hard core Nazis could also be “human”… i hate those movies where Germans are portrayed as fully evil in everyway possible… just to yield that tear jerk when they destroy people… its too much technique in the “easy method” of producing hatred against them.
Another great movie on the subject was “conspiracy” which is one of my all time favorites…
Well, Nazis were pretty darned evil, and they realised what was going on. There was little resistance and of the resistance there were only a few bands of rebels who fought against the evil of the Nazis. So really, most Germans are truly evil for believing in what they did to the fullest potential.
-
@Imperious:
I liked that “Pianist” better… for me it demonstated how hard core Nazis could also be “human”… i hate those movies where Germans are portrayed as fully evil in everyway possible… just to yield that tear jerk when they destroy people… its too much technique in the “easy method” of producing hatred against them.
Another great movie on the subject was “conspiracy” which is one of my all time favorites…
Never seen those movies. I am intrested in watching them since you mentioned them.
Because we all know the stats (we have to all be in some degree WW2 geeks, given the site) of who killed more. Stalin gets the gold, Hitler gets the silver. I would be curious to see a movie portraying life in the good ole USSR under Stalin. I know the stats, but the personal misery seems to be swept under the rug so to speak. For every holocaust victem there was at least 2 or 3 people who died under Stalin in a similiar fashion. Unlike the Holocaust, those people have just been forgotten.
If any of you have any info on Schindler, in reguards to who he chose to save, I would greatly appreciate it.
-
Dont forget Mao… who really gets the silver… giving Hitler the bronze. That sorry dude was worse than Hitler
Kill tally: 14 to 20 million deaths from starvation during the ‘Great Leap Forward’. Tens of thousands killed and millions of lives ruined during the ‘Cultural Revolution’… nice what a man… Herr Hitler says i hate you thus i kill you… Mao says i will help you die for the benifit of our future. Gee great…
-
One must remember who was within his reach. The factory her ran being where it was and who was available would have dictated who he could save regardless. Gypsies probablly did nto have many machinists in their numbers and as was pointed out the factory was run by Jews for the most part. To put unskilled workers in the factory you had to stick your neck out. Would you have been willign to risk summary execution for a gypsy you didn’t know when Jews you grew up with where in the same crowd? Dunno. Lets make sure the world never gets to that point again. Regardless, he was a flawed man in many ways, but he did the right thing at a time when he risked death to do so. He could have EASILY taken his fortune to South America and lived like a king and died of old age. Remember, one of the worst of the worst Joseph Magela (sp?) did just that.
-
Nazi intrusions / restrictions on his business opened Oscars eyes a bit more to the Nazi atrocities against the Jews.
He still managed, and he knew he had to keep a friendly face forward so the Army would keep buying his cookware. But he finally saw enough and was in the end became human. Keeping his workers alive amid his dwindling resources was his way of taking it to “Der Herr”.
Suggested Topics
