New York (CNN) -- Authorities have arrested a man they claim was plotting to detonate pipe bombs in and around New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday night.
The intended targets of Jose Pimentel, 27, were U.S. military personnel who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. postal facilities and police in New York and Bayonne, New Jersey, according to Bloomberg and New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The suspect was described by Bloomberg as an "al Qaeda sympathizer," though he is not believed to have ever worked with or received training from anyone in that terrorist organization.
Bloomberg announces terror arrest
"There is no evidence he worked with anyone else," Bloomberg said. "He appears to be ... a lone wolf."
The police commissioner identified the suspect as a follower of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric who rose to become a top figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Pimental allegedly tried to contact al-Awlaki directly, but never got a response.
An unemployed native of the Dominican Republican who is a U.S. citizen, Pimentel had lived most of his life in Manhattan, except for five years in Schenectady, New York. He'd had been monitored by authorities since 2009 and his extreme positions "made even some of his like-minded friends nervous," said Kelly.
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