An Israeli Named . . . Jose Rodriguez?

We should at the very least agree that it’s totally uncool to phone in false terrorism tips in an ill-advised plot to screw over business rivals:

In a call to New York City’s terrorism hot line in May, the informant described the plot in chilling detail: Syrians working in the jewelry business had hatched a plan to carry out a suicide bombing in the subway system on one of the most symbolic days of the year, Independence Day.

They had hidden explosives in hollowed-out jewelry, the informant said, and then used their professional know-how to import the jewelry and bring it to a store that one of them owned in New York.

To clinch the story, the informant, who identified himself as Jose Rodriguez and said he was from Israel, told the police officer answering the hot line that he had overheard the plotters use the Arab expression “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”

The post-Sept. 11 antiterrorist law enforcement apparatus sprang into action, with city, federal and even Israeli officers following leads, conducting 24-hour surveillance and searching homes and businesses with bomb-sniffing dogs. A New York detective stationed in Jerusalem tried to track down the man called Jose Rodriguez.

In the end, the investigators concluded that the call was a hoax, they said yesterday, perpetrated by a Syrian Jewish refugee named Rimon Alkatri, 34, the owner of a jewelry store in Brooklyn. The five conspirators identified by Mr. Alkatri were not Muslims but Christians and Jews, the police and prosecutors said. He had done business with four of the men, officials said, and had named them as terrorists because he had a grudge against them stemming from a business deal that had ended in a bitter disagreement.

So let’s get this straight: your name is Jose Rodriguez . . . you’re from Israel . . . and terrorists are smuggling explosives in gold chains. Yes, caller, I’m still here.

But when you’re done feeling enraged by idiots making false terrorism claims, you can step back and enjoy the chutzpah of the man’s attorney:

Mr. Alkatri was arrested yesterday as he was leaving his apartment on East Ninth Street in a Syrian Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn to work at his jewelry store, El Castillo De Oro, on Knickerbocker Avenue. A grand jury has indicted him on a felony charge falsely reporting an incident in the first degree, and he faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

Speaking outside State Supreme Court in Manhattan yesterday after Mr. Alkatri’s arraignment had been postponed, his lawyer, Samuel J. Karliner, said his client’s only motive was to be a good citizen. Mr. Alkatri called the hot line, Mr. Karliner said, because he truly believed that the five men were conspirators and had apparently made a mistake.

Mr. Karliner said his client had overheard a worker in his jewelry store named George talking on his cellphone and using the phrase “Allahu Akbar.” Mr. Alkatri associated the phrase with the attack on the World Trade Center and beheadings in Iraq and became alarmed, his lawyer said. He gave a false name to the police because he was afraid that the men would find out who he was and hurt him, Mr. Karliner said.

Mr. Karliner said his client came to the United States from Syria as a refugee in 1996, and is married with two children. He said Mr. Alkatri felt wounded that instead of being thanked for his good citizenship, he has been arrested, and predicted that Mr. Alkatri’s plight would have a “chilling effect” on others.

The sign that every New Yorker, including his client, has seen in the subway, Mr. Karliner said, urges “‘If you see something, say something,’ not ‘If it’s not true, we’re going to arrest you.'”

Nice try but no way, Jose. (Yuk yuk.)