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 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.