Vol. 78/No. 7      February 24, 2014

Pimentel was targeted by the 1,000-strong Intelligence Division and Counterterrorism Bureau of the New York City Police Department, which chips away at constitutional protections and rights of working people under the pretext of “national security.”

While then-New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said after Pimentel’s arrest in November 2011 that the Dominican-born naturalized U.S. citizen had conceived terror plans as a “lone wolf” who had “self-radicalized,” facts showed he did virtually nothing alone. He was prodded and pushed by one of the undercover provocateurs, who kept luring Pimentel to his apartment and giving him marijuana, then recorded what he said. It was there that the snitch goaded Pimentel to put together a pipe bomb and helped him build it.

Now, as the Feb. 24 trial approaches, prosecutor Deborah Hickey says that to reveal the names of the three agents would “endanger the lives of these witnesses and will interfere with several current and future NYPD investigations.” The Sixth Amendment constitutional right to a speedy and public trial, she argued, “may on occasion yield to other overriding interests, such as the need to protect the safety of witnesses.” If their identities became known, she said, it could “lead to their being harassed, annoyed and humiliated.”

Pimentel’s lawyers protested the move, saying that Pimentel was a victim of cop entrapment.

When the intelligence cops were prodding Pimentel, they invited the FBI to join in. But the federal snoops declined, twice. When Pimentel was arrested, the FBI said they had not gotten involved because he “didn’t have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own” and that the zealous participation of the informant would make it “possible” for Pimentel to argue he was framed.

The FBI refused to file any federal charges against Pimentel.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Thomas Farber took Hickey’s motion under consideration, saying there is a “very, very, very strong presumption” against clearing the courtroom, but that he was open to keeping the identities of the cops and informers secret.

The judge also said he was inclined to reject a prosecution motion to bring in a “terrorism expert” to lecture the jury, saying he didn’t want to “turn this trial into a referendum on terrorism.”  
 
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Prison abuses and torture in Cyprus fuel protests, suicides
Socialist Workers Party victory against FBI spying has lasting effect on class politics
‘Fifty Years of Covert Operations in the US: Washington’s Political Police and the American Working Class’ published by Pathfinder Press
 
 
 
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