Even when it comes to Muslim terrorists the U.S doesn't seem to attract a great number of competency. Is anyone else wondering why our terrorists are either mentally unstable or just plain foolish*?

*Ignoring claims of the government setting them up that is.

Yes, but the average person must still gave up their civil rights, even though you are twice as likely to be struck by lightening. So what is the real game the real reason?

Honestly, who cares what happens to this guy? So the NYPD over-reacted. That's your article? Citing evidence like this: "Fortunately, they are also the explosive devices least likely to inflict mass casualties." is just like saying, "fortunately sharks rarely attack humans" it's relatively true, but we should still do everything in our power to avoid "sharky" areas, and swim cautiously. To not do so would be...well...(even though most of humanity is guilty of it) lunacy. Precautions and preemptive measures are taken to prevent precisely this type of attack; the easily preventable ones. Although Ramzi Yousef, Bin Laden, zawahiri, Mughniya etc.. were all really bright terrorists. The vast majority are complete idiots who lack education beyond primary school. This is why they can be convinced to blow themselves up for allah. Yet, they are still quite an effective tool of terror. In other words: Just because someone is not that smart, or is using outdated, homemade hardware, it doesnt make them any less of a threat. The FBI didn't handle this one because they KNEw the NYPD would, and they prefer their cases to be high-profile slam dunks rather than something like this.

I hate the term wannabe when referring to terrorists, gang members, etc. because it implies that the person only wanted to be a this type of character but nevr tried. These people tried. That fact alone makes them dangerous and classifies them as terrorists. In every case, had they gotten one step right or just been a little lucky they would have succeeded. The difference between all of these you list and other terrorists, is the other pulled it off, these didn't. If failing to kill Americans classifies them as wannabes then the shoe bomber, the underwear bomber, the attempts to blow up liquids on planes, and every other failed attempt must have been simply wannabes. In hindsight, by your logic, we can even say the terrorists of 9/11, the 93 WTC, the Cole, etc. were all just wannabes who got lucky.

by what they're good at and bad at. We make terrible terrorists, in general. I think down deep most of these jahidiots don't have the visceral, soul-searing rage that someone actually being suppressed under an authoritarian regime feels. Theirs is more a tribal hatred - they want to even the score of their tribe vs our tribe for injustices received and wrongs endured. Any injustices and wrongs dished out, of course, are only just and appropriate retaliations . . .

And for the most part here, injustices and wrongs (going in both directions) are what you see over the internet, so there's a sense of impersonalization and detachment. It's not like it was YOUR uncle Abdul who got blown up by persons unknown last week three streets over at the market.

The motivations of a mosque-burning race baiting white christian supremacist are exactly the same as those of an al-Quaeda suicide bomber wannabee fantasist. They're mad about something, and someone has to pay. They immerse themselves in the reality of their choice, watching media sources which feeds their particular brand of paranoia, haunting websites where they can associate with people who agree with each other, and given the anonymity of the net, can talk a lot of trash that unfortunately resonates with some of the more unstable ones They know they can't 'get' the ones truly responsible, so they 'send messages' from the silence and darkness of their rage.

However, also given the ubiquity of the internet, it also means that idiots who are acting out can be surveilled to some degree by the datasweepers at Ft. Meade. If you frequent sites of interest to US intelligence, I strongly suspect that you are being tracked just as a matter of course, and if you're openly espousing violence, there's a human being looking over everything you do on the net, taking especial interest in whom you're talking with. Which I don't have a problem with - fruitcakes tend to cluster beneath the shady branches of the fruitcake tree. And the fellows in the black helicopters know where those trees are planted . . .

Since down deep they know they're killing innocents, I think their subconsciousnesses sabotage them, in that they display behavior similar to people who act out suicides. I think that for all it's technical complexity, one of the reasons the 9/11 attack was so successful was because of the group reinforcement they received by operating as a trained unit. You'll notice that there haven't been any successful suicide bombing attempts here in the US. The mindset and desperation isn't at the same level here as it is in Karachi or Baghdad.

So we are blessed with incompetent terrorists. I think that actually says something good and noble about our culture that our homegrown whackadoodle mass murderer types are more inspired by Jimmy Breslin than Tom Clancy . . . This isn't to say that the successful ones aren't bad (Timothy MacVeigh), but for the most part they are very few and far between, thank the deity of your choice. We're just not very good at it . . .

The tone of this piece, and of a couple of the other posters, is as disturbing as the underlying act. Mr. Klarevas would have us learn from his expertise that men who obtain guns for the purpose of entering a religious sanctuary to shoot as many people as possible really are nothing to worry about. Nor are bombers who actually attempt to ignite propane canisters in Times Square. All are just "idiots." Klarevas' intent is clear: NYPD clearly should prioritize differently.

Really? From his tone, it's also clear that Mr. Klarevas wasn't likely to be among those worshiping in the religious sanctuaries Ferhami and Mamdouh sought to bomb and to shoot up. Indeed, our author, a "senior" Fulbright scholar no less, appears to be entirely indifferent to the threat these men posed to all anonymous Jews, people who only seek to approach their God in their way, whether in Manhattan, Queens or anywhere in America. No congregants who were targeted merited even a brief conversation before Klarevas found his "research" sufficient to mock those concerned to protect their safety --and the safety of other New Yorkers.

What a sad state of affairs the learned life has stooped to if we only grow attentive, and can affect even a pose of concern, when threats actually walk in the door of the religious sanctuary our very own loved ones attend, and then actually shoot someone. But I don't imagine even this threshold often is crossed by Mr. Klarevas.

He seems to have found in the image in his own mirror the only object worthy of being treasured. The really interesting question is: do the editors of Foreign Policy fully embrace his camp contempt for the safety of people toward whom he prefers to be indifferent? Or has Foreign Policy simply added a "dark humor" section?

Am I all alone out here, horrified by this fallacious argument? All American terrorists and those foreign we’ve caught on domestic soil (or publicized having caught) since 9/11, are idiots; therefore, all terrorists in America are idiots? There, there; drift back into your TV-induced haze.

My mind would induce a bit less unease if the anti-terrorist network had chased to ground a few killer elite, deep deep mole, mass-casualty suicide squads of the crazed religious kind, and if NEST teams had packed out a half-dozen or so more or less portable nukes and/or sophisticated dirty bombs under the Klieg lights of the Press. The whole shipped to undisclosed, high security locations, for scientific analysis and intelligent interrogation, etc.

At best, these bad guys are being quietly snuffed out and their weapons disposed of in deep, black, serial, special ops secrecy. At worst, they are not.

As it stands, they appear to be quietly standing by for further orders, while a parade of obvious clowns gets railroaded instead, with their pathetic, not quite weaponized sparklers.

Be very afraid.

I can't what understand what terrorist think they will get out of it, they just hurt people that's it, it's good the security is high though

I agreed with you Hurricane great point. This is why they can be convinced to blow themselves up for allah. Yet, they are still quite an effective tool of terror. In other words: Just because someone is not that smart, or is using outdated, homemade hardware, it doesnt make them any less of a threat. Miniclip, Friv, Friv Games

I was watching this news while I was running on my treadmills with TV. It's a great thing that this guy is convicted. Not only that he's dumb, he's a threat. Having him caught is as easy as renting treadmills. I hope all the terrorists in this planet will be caught. Especially the idiot ones!

Dear Dr. Klarevas,

I may have an answer to your gun control question and why bombs as opposed to guns by idiot home grown terrorists. I think the answer can be gleamed from Foucault's "The Spectacle of the Scaffold." Foucault suggests that the pageantry of the bloody scaffold is a symbol of state power. Perhaps the same is true for terrorism. The bomb heightens mystique of the idiot. Just as the scaffold was a symbol of state power during the French Revolution, the explosion is a symbol of terror and the power of violent ideology to strike unsuspecting people. Even the plot to develop such a weapon is a spectacle filled with pageantry and stupidity. The spectacle in terms of terrorism is an act that would reduce confidence in the state's ability to protect its citizens. In turn, either a suicide bomb, or a remotely detonated device carries a mystique that some ominous untouchable agents of destruction may visit your doorstep too, someday. This is not so in terms of the gun. The shooter is often identified and seen, unless they act like the DC sniper. He or she does not have this mystique of watching from the shadows. Even though, it is easier to have access to a ready made gun as opposed to a bomb, there is no elaborate planning to orchestrate an attack with a gun. In addition, if the idiot jihadist simply use guns, then they are on the same level as a mugger or gang member. Using a gun would put them and their ideology on the same level of a street gang defending its turf. And there is no spectacle in that.

-M

Imagine how polluted your mind must get to try and build a bomb and try to carry out an attack. One can only hope that all these lunaticks get caught eventually. remove google redirect virus It is actually somewhat surprising that there aren't a lot more of these crazy people running around that are homegrown terrorists or should I say wannabe terrorists. It seems they were monitoring this guy for quite some time. Not the brightest bulb in the box to say the least!

My mind would induce a bit less unease if the anti-terrorist network had chased to ground a few killer elite, deep deep mole, mass-casualty suicide squads of the crazed religious kind, and if NEST teams had packed out a half-dozen or so more or less portable nukes and/or sophisticated dirty bombs under the Klieg lights of the Press. seslichat The whole shipped to undisclosed, high security locations, for scientific analysis and intelligent interrogation, etc.

Meanwhile, Pimentel will stay in jail without bail on charges including weapons possession and conspiracy as terror crimes. The Dominican-born vince delmonte fitness sympathizer maintained an internet site detailing his belief in jihad, or holy war; told an informant he desired to build small bombs and employ them against targets which included soldiers coming back home from abroad; and was arrested in the middle of creating a pipe bomb, authorities said. It's unclear whether Pimentel will need to appear for any court date Monday.