WASHINGTON (JTA) — Law enforcement officials stressed that the two Bronx synagogues that were targets in an alleged bombing plot were chosen at random.
In a Jewish Community Relations Council of New York conference call Thursday afternoon, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Joe Demarest, assistant director of the FBI’s New York division, said there was no intelligence to suggest any particular reasons that the Riverdale Temple and Riverdale Jewish Center were targeted by the four men arrested.
Kelly said that "it’s safe to say" that the foiled plot was the "work of aberrant individuals" and doesn’t represent a trend or pattern, but added that "we don’t know what we don’t know" and thus have to be vigilant.
The two officials noted that all the bombs and missiles the plotters had were fake, and Demarest said that a gun the men purchased late last month was "disabled" by their confidential informant in a way that the defendants were unable to determine that it could not be fired.
