The NYPD stresses that they were just free-lancers not tied to any terrorist organizaton. They seem to think that will make us feel more secure and not less.

From the [1] New York Post:

Two men charged with plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station were also planning a "holy war" rampage against seven other crucial targets around the city — including at least two other stations, three police precincts and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, officials said yesterday...

A law-enforcement source said Siraj — who worked at an Islamic bookstore in Bay Ridge with his father and uncle — was once an associate of suspects in an ongoing federal terrorism and money-laundering probe.

The suspects considered him a "loose cannon," the source said.

But don't worry. His family says he couldn't possibly be a terrorist.