joshsternberg:

Am I that paranoid (or cynical) in thinking this Bloomberg terrorism press conference was nothing but a PR stunt? 

• Sunday at 7:30pm to announce the arrest of a potential terrorist? A lone-wolf terrorist, mind you, who, by definition of a lone-wolf, does not have a network of terrorists that would take over the terrorist plot should he be arrested. In other words, once you arrest the lone-wolf, there are no pack members who would pose imminent danger.
• The NYPD Chief of Police, the District Attorney and the Mayor - no FBI, CIA, NSA or Homeland Security, agencies who most assuredly would and should be involved in a terrorist threat against any city, but especially New York City.

This was a PR stunt by New York City law enforcement; they’ve been beat up in the press the last week due to their arrogant and insidious behavior against the Occupy Wall Street protesters (and arguably more importantly, keeping the press away from covering the midnight raid of Zuccotti Park and following days of protests). 

So, they hold this conference, get the media salivating (I’m sure Fox News will be all over this for the next three days - which means CNN and MSNBC will follow) over terrorism and hope people focus on this and not the last week.  

Crazy, possibly. I haven’t slept much this weekend, but either way, this conference just smelled fishy.

It was strange that Bloomberg was announcing this rather than the FBI, but we think of it this way — Osama bin Laden’s death got a Sunday-at-midnight announcement, so it’s not unprecedented for major terrorism stories to hit at such a weird hour. But cynicism warranted, even if it turns out that this was a credible threat.