There's a knee-jerk reaction when a terror-plot is broken up before the desired calamity is done. It's a two-part attempt to cast the alleged terrorists as incapable of actually pulling off their planned attack and to cast them as victims of an FBI informant who led them to their fate.

There are signs of that phenomenon in the immediate aftermath of terror charges against four men who were arrested after parking what they thought was a car bomb outside a New York synagogue. They were petty criminals and not the smartest jihadis on the block.

A New York Post editorial argues that doesn't make them less dangerous:

"Don't be misled by the amateurish nature of their misadventure. What the four lacked in brains, they more than made up for in malign intent.

And the fact that their plot went as far as it did -- the men actually had planted what they thought were deadly bombs before the feds moved in -- dramatically underscores, as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly noted, the very real threat of homegrown terror cells."

The Post also notes with concern that at least three of the suspects seem to have been radicalized during previous prison stints. There's plenty of evidence showing some prison imams preach radical messages to their captive audiences. The editorial concludes that
"It's time that this boil was lanced."