The Ideas Behind the Alleged NYC "Lone Wolf" Bomber

This analysis by Steve Emerson of Jose Pimentel's motivation provides a window into the mindset of an Islamic terrorist bomber.

FROM FAMILYSECURITYMATTERS.ORG:

The Ideas Behind the Alleged NYC "Lone Wolf" Bomber

Steve Emerson

November 22, 2011

Often it's the paper trail that brings down a would-be terrorist. Accused lone-wolf jihadist Jose Pimentel was arrested as he assembled a pipe bomb in his home. But he leaves an extensive collection of writings and online postings which show his devotion to waging jihad in America.

New York police arrested Pimentel Saturday for plotting to bomb American police and soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, using homemade pipe bombs based on an al-Qaida magazine article, "How to Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom." The unemployed Dominican convert to Islam answers to the name Muhammad Yusuf and is charged under New York state law with two counts of conspiracy, one count providing support for an act of terrorism and a weapons charge.

News reports indicate that the FBI declined to pursue Pimentel because agents considered him "mentally unstable" and not a serious threat. But Pimentel's blog, monitored by law enforcement officials for the past year, shows sophisticated reasoning and articulate expression of why he wanted to kill Americans. It is rare that terrorists leave behind such a clear trail of their radicalization process, with detailed identification of the influences that motivated their actions.

The case shows that, although the release of English-language jihadi materials has taken a hit since the September killing of al-Qaida ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, the videos and writings he left behind still inspire terrorist plots.

Pimentel's website, trueislam1.com, mixes radical Islamist ideology and mainstream Islam, creating the picture of an educated and dangerous extremist.

His reading list includes classic commentaries of the Quran alongside radical texts, such as Muslim Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb's Milestones and [Kitab al] Tawheed by Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism. Milestones is a highly intellectual work that develops the case for political Islam and jihad to establish a modern Islamic state, while Wahhab's theological text forms the basis for a more puritanical form of Islamic law. Posts from Pimentel's website demonstrate his ability to synthesize ideas from sources like these into clear and coherent arguments.

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