This isn't exactly getting into tin foil hat territory, but neither can the question about the timing of revealing the arrest of a suspect in the Iranian terror plot be dismissed.

An editorial in the New York Post:

Certainly, the seriousness of the plot -- at least as outlined in the criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court -- can't be denied.

It also underscores the continuing danger of the Islamist fifth column in this country -- given that the accused lead conspirator is a naturalized US citizen.

But you really have to wonder: Was the bust accelerated?

Alleged lead conspirator Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-born naturalized US citizen, has been in federal custody for nearly two weeks since being nabbed at JFK Airport.

As recently as last week, he was reportedly confessing all to FBI agents and making incriminating phone calls, monitored by the feds, to his alleged government contact in Iran.

The plot itself was said to have been hatched last spring, when Arbabsiar approached someone he believed was a reliable member of an assassination-for-hire Mexican drug cartel -- but turned out to be a Drug Enforcement Agency informer.

What appears to have been crack work by law-enforcement and intelligence agencies -- including, pointedly, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- couldn't have come at a better time for Holder.

The ATF is under heavy pressure to explain how it ended up selling guns to those same Mexican cartels -- some of which later turned up at the site where a US border agent was gunned down.

Even as the administration searches for scapegoats, congressional investigators have been zeroing in on Holder -- trying to answer the famous question: What did he know, and when did he know it?

So far, the AG's stonewalling.

It is serendipitous that at exactly the point of maximum pressure being directed at Holder - the probabilty of a congressional subpoena in the Fast and Furious investigation - this wonderfully distracting case falls into the lap of the press.

But it could very well be that authorities had squeezed just about all they were going to out of the suspect and the timing on the indictment is a coincidence. Until evidence presents itself that this was not on the up and up, I'm going to believe that the Fast and Furious case had nothing to do with the timing.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky