But would this have become a real one?
I consider it real as soon as he indicated an interest in becoming a martyr. I'd have said, "No!" You'd have said, "No!" That's all he had to do but he didn't. Therefore, I consider him a threat. How long before he would have read on the internet how to build a bomb? Or someone would have found him and taught him or... a hundred other scenarios. I have to disagree with you and Rob on this one.