American Sentenced To 16 Years In New York City Pipe Bomb Case

[March 26, 2014]  NEW YORK (Reuters) — An American Muslim who pleaded guilty to a New York state terrorism charge for attempting to make a pipe bomb was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said.

Jose Pimentel, a 29-year-old Dominican-born U.S. citizen, was arrested in 2011 after a police informant secretly recorded meetings with him as he bought bomb materials and read online instructions on how to assemble them, according to court documents.

Pimentel was accused of plotting to attack police stations, post offices and military personnel in and around New York City.

In a statement on Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said Pimentel had a personal website that advocated violence against U.S. citizens and government agencies and that had links to bomb-making instructions.

The components seized by the New York police department were detailed in a step-by-step bomb-making guide published by Al Qaeda's Inspire Magazine, Vance said.

"As Pimentel's guilty plea confirms, the threat of terrorism is increasingly coming from radicalized local actors living in our communities," Vance said in the statement.

Pimentel's case was brought under a New York state anti-terror law passed after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The New York City police conducted a yearlong investigation leading to his arrest in November 2011.

(Reporting By Dena Aubin; editing by Ken Wills)

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