If you haven't heard, four African-American Muslims were arrested this evening in New York City and charged with a plot to bomb a series of sites in city, including several synagogues. It appears that this is one of those cases where the group was under surveillance for a very long time and helped along in what turned out to be a bogus plot orchestrated by federal authorities.

To be clear, my phrasing isn't meant to suggest they were entrapped, only that the authorities had them under close tabs and the various munitions they were buying were duds supplied by informants and undercover agents.

A reader told us this evening that he'd been contacted by his congregation's rabbi and that their synagogue was apparently the first target of the group. According to this reader, the suspects had actually 'planted' four dummy bombs in front of the synagogue before being arrested. But I have not been able to confirm that last point.

Late Update: Here's the update from the Times City Room.

Latter Update: Confirmed. Just out from the Daily News ...

The FBI busted a homegrown terror cell late Wednesday night as the men sneaked around a Jewish temple in Riverdale planting what they thought was packages of C-4 explosives, sources told the Daily News.