A great big thanks-for-nothing to the FBI for taking a pass on investigating Jose Pimentel, the Al Qaeda-inspired bomber, alleged, who determinedly went about making pipe bombs for use in the city.
Not that the NYPD wasn’t up to tracking and busting Pimentel all on its own. This the department did smashingly, surely saving many lives.
It’s only that the feds and the Finest are supposed to be partners in this type of operation.
After all, they are members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Far from reassuring was the sight of Mayor Bloomberg, Commissioner Ray Kelly and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announcing Pimentel’s arrest at a press conference with nary a shadow of a federal presence.
Equally disconcerting was the show-and-tell Kelly put on, detonating a bomb made to Pimentel’s specifications. The demonstration was clearly designed to show that the man was a clear and present threat — in rebuttal to inevitable claims that the NYPD had concocted a plot by encouraging an otherwise dormant lunatic into action.
The FBI has now opted out of two terror cases brought by Kelly and Vance. While the reasoning in both cases is murky, the causes appear to rest with FBI regulations governing such matters as how close to St. Francis of Assisi a confidential informant must be to pass the bureau’s muster.
Then, too, the FBI is far more focused on making criminal cases than on intelligence gathering that could lead to a criminal case. As it happened, Pimentel came to the NYPD’s attention at a time when he was easily dismissed as, perhaps, a nut job ranting about radical Islam.
Thank heavens Deputy Commissioner David Cohen‘s Intelligence Division had the wisdom to track this fanatic for two years after being alerted by Albany police that Pimentel bore watching.
Why did Albany pass the word along? Because the NYPD created a regional information-sharing system based on lessons learned from the London subway bombings. There, conspirators assembled a plot outside London and out of view of Scotland Yard. To eliminate such a blind spot here, Cohen‘s crew brought local authorities, including Albany, up to speed on danger signs.
That type of relentless attention to detail, along with a readiness to engage with Pimentel via a confidential informant, paid off when this fanatic suddenly veered toward devastating bloodshed.
As Kelly said, the NYPD had to act immediately, going it smartly and unfortunately alone against a “lone wolf” who fit an increasingly familiar pattern of radicalization in the 14th foiled terror plot against New York since 9/11.
