2 NYC women arrested for alleged terrorist plot, 1 obsessed with Marathon bombing

NEW YORK (

) — Two New York women were arrested for allegedly trying to build a homemade bomb and plotting a terrorist attack in the New York City area. One of the women was reportedly partly inspired by the Boston Marathon bombings.

Police arrested 28-year-old Noelle Velentzas and 31-year-old Asia Siddiqui after an FBI investigation, which began in May 2013, indicated that the women were building an explosive weapon and planned to detonate it in a terrorist attack against the United States.

A 29-page criminal complaint says Velentzas and Siddiqui were allegedly using the internet and science textbooks to study the science behind making homemade explosive devices.

Siddiqui allegedly told officials that Velentzas had been obsessed with pressure cookers since the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. Velentzas told authorities that she recently received a pressure cooker as a present and joked about putting "food" in it, referencing explosive materials.

The complaint alleges Velentzas told an undercover agent that the Boston Marathon bombers made a mistake targeting innocent citizens, and that it was better to go for the "enemy" than "people getting drunk at the marathon."

Officials say Velentzas and Siddiqui both expressed "violent jihadist beliefs."

According to the federal complaint, both women looked to the al-Qaeda published magazine Inspire for some ideas. That is the same magazine found on hard drives belonging to the Tsarnaev brothers. One issue of Inspire contained an article entitled "Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom."

The complaint also alleges that when one of the women was arrested, she had already acquired propane tanks, and had instructions on how to convert them into bombs. The other woman made statements that both of them were prepared to die in their attacks.

Velentzas has allegedly repeatedly expressed an interest in in terrorist attacks within the US. Officials say she praised the September 11, 2001 attacks, adding that being a martyr in a suicide attack guarantees entrance into heaven.

The women face charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, and were arraigned in a Brooklyn court on Thursday.

"It's about, at the end of the day, ideology, not organization," said Lasell College professor Dana Janbek, who is an expert in how terror groups spread their ideas to would-be domestic terrorists.

"This ideology is so strong, and relatively easy to widespread because of technology and relative easy access to information," she said.

Cox Media Group