New York Police Department counterterrorism officials say that they were first alerted to the activities of Jose Pimentel, a Dominican immigrant and Muslim convert, accused of plotting to detonate pipe bombs in the city, about two-and-a-half years ago

One official said that they were notified about Pimentel's activities by law enforcement sources in upstate New York in May 2009. By then, the official says, he was already radicalized. The NYPD used an informant to make contact with Pimentel, to befriend him and monitor his activities. Pimentel - a native of the Dominican Republic and a convert to Islam - has been arraigned in New York. He faces five charges, including criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism. According to a senior counterterrorism source, Pimentel had expressed a desire to go to Yemen at some point in 2010, and sent an email to the al Qaeda cleric and propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011. The official said that Pimentel was prolific online - maintaining a website called True Islam. A website called trueislam1.com which is mentioned in the criminal complaint against Pimintel includes tributes to well-known al Qaeda figures and other jihadist leaders. Its introduction ends: "May Allah bless all the Muslims, may he give us victory over the disbelieving people, and may he guide all those non Muslims, who visit this site to Islam." A YouTube channel (mujahidfisabillilah1's channel) that links to the website describes its owner as "a Sunni Muslim BROTHER [sic] from the Dominican Republic currently living in Harlem, New York. Allah has guided me out of darkness and into the light." Pimentel was in touch and interacting with other Islamist radicals online and was aware of Revolution Muslim, a New York-based group sympathetic to the aims of al Qaeda. Many apparently like-minded individuals posted messages on his YouTube site in the last several months. A message posted on the site recently stated: "May Allah Reward you for all your efforts and hard work. Ameen." A senior counterterrorism source said that Pimentel based his design on a recipe from the online al Qaeda magazine Inspire entitled "How to Build a Bomb in Your Mom's Kitchen," published in the summer of 2010.