NY DAILLY NEWS
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the NYPD busted a lone-wolf terror suspect without the FBI because it didn’t want to waste any time.
“We had to act quickly because he was, in fact, putting this bomb together,” Kelly said of Al Qaeda sympathizer Jose Pimentel.
“He was drilling the holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb.”
He said the Police Department worked with the feds on the case before Pimentel, 27, was arrested Saturday and charged Sunday — but couldn’t wait for their “assessment process” to move in.
“We had to act,” he said.
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CBS
CBS News reported the case was handled entirely by the NYPD, without the involvement of the FBI or other federal authorities. The absence of federal involvement may also reflect on the overall strength of the case, CBS News reported
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Associated Press
The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady. He said police in the Albany area tipped New York City police off to Pimentel's activities.
Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."
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Wahington Times
Two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation of a New York City bomb plot said federal authorities declined to pursue the case.
The officials said on Monday that the NYPD sought to get the FBI involved two times as the investigation unfolded. One said that after reviewing the evidence, the FBI concluded the lone suspect didn’t have the “predisposition or the ability” to carry out the plot.
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.
Jose Pimentel is being held on state terrorism charges alleging he plotted to blow up police and post offices in New York City.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday that federal officials were aware of the NYPD probe.
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NEW YORK — Federal authorities declined to pursue a case against an "al-Qaida 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 today.
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 today.
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