If There Weren’t Al Qaeda Bombmakers, We’d Have To Invent Them

The guy the NYPD picked up was perhaps stoned on weed when he made incriminating remarks:

But it was the informer’s role, and that of his police handlers, that have now been cited as among the reasons the F.B.I., which had its own parallel investigation of Mr. Pimentel, did not pursue the case, which was announced on Sunday night in a news conference at City Hall. Terrorism cases are generally handled by federal authorities.

There was concern that the informer might have played too active a role in helping Mr. Pimentel, said several people who were briefed on the case, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity, either because of the tense relations between the Intelligence Division and the F.B.I. or because the case was continuing.

. . .

Mr. Pimentel, 27, who lived with his uncle in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood after his mother threw him out recently, appears to be unstable, according to several of the people briefed on the case, three of whom said he had tried to circumcise himself.

And Mr. Pimentel, several of the people said, also smoked marijuana with the confidential informant, and some recordings in which he makes incriminating statements were made after the men had done so. His lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, did not return a call on Monday seeking comment.

. . .

As late as Saturday, after Mr. Pimentel was arrested, the Intelligence Division invited the task force to interview Mr. Pimentel and view the partially constructed incendiary device, a person briefed on the investigation said.

In the task force, investigators were concerned that the case raised some entrapment questions, two people said. They added that some investigators wondered whether Mr. Pimentel had the even small amount of money or technical know-how necessary to produce a pipe bomb on his own, had he not received help from the informer.

Entrapment is a word that has come up before in these high-profile busts.

Murray Weiss’ piece is also instructive, and a little more to the point: “The problem can be simply put: How much of Pimentel’s interest in bomb making and attacking New York targets was of his own making, and how much was facilitated by an NYPD informant keeping tabs on him?”