Three Americans and one Haitian were arrested in New York last evening, after the FBI learned that they intended to bomb two synagogues and shoot at military planes with shoulder-fired missiles. They were apparently planting fake explosives they believed to be real at the time of the arrest.

All four residents of Newburgh, N.Y., were under surveillance by the NYPD, FBI, and an undercover informant for months. They all had rap sheets and at least some of them had converted to Islam while in prison, reports indicate.

While the explosives had been disabled by the FBI without the men knowing, one official told the LA Times that “they had a real plot” and the men had stated they “wanted to engage in terrorist attacks”.

“They selected targets and sought the weapons necessary to carry out their plans,” Dassin said in a statement. “Fortunately, the defendants sought the assistance of a witness cooperating with the government. While the weapons provided to the defendants by the cooperating witness were fake, the defendants thought they were absolutely real.”

The men were identified as James Cromitie, also known as Abdul Rahman; David Williams, or Daoud; Onta Williams, or Hamza; and Laguerre Payen, or Amin.

Each has been charged with one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States and one count of conspiracy to acquire and use antiaircraft missiles. Each count carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The investigation lasted about a year and concluded that the men not only wanted to detonate a car packed with C-4 explosives outside Jewish religious institutions, but intended to shoot down military planes at the New York Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport.

Back in July, the undercover informant notified the FBI that he had claimed to be a group with ties to Al Qaeda, namely the Jaish-e-Muhammad. James Cromitie (aka Abdul Rahman) responded that he wanted to join the terror group to “do jihad” in response to U.S. military actions across the Middle East. The attack plans on the synagogues was do to the antisemitic beliefs of the suspects, as you can imagine.

BBC News has helpful graphics of not only Stewart Airport but of the two locations (Riverdale Temple and Riverdale Jewish Center) the men intended to attack. NBC New York has news video and pictures from immediately after the arrest. Actually, you can find amateur video of the arrest in progress over at NBC, too.

On the blogosphere side, here’s Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo informing us all how this was “a bogus plot orchestrated by federal authorities”. Why? Apparently because undercover FBI agents sold them dud explosives that they intended to use to carry out the plot. Why that makes it a “bogus plot orchestrated by federal authorities” is beyond me, but we’re talking about the nutroots here. It doesn’t have to make sense.

More: Gates of Vienna, STACLU, Yourish, Jihad Watch, The Jawa Report, Jules Crittenden, Confederate Yankee, Sister Toldjah.