They were the hate-filled, homegrown terrorists next door — ready to cut your head off if they got the chance.

“They only fear you when you have a gun and when you, when you start killing them and when you take their head, and you go like this, and you behead it on camera,” hissed terrorist wannabe Mohamed Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, NJ, during an undercover operation in 2009, a federal complaint unsealed yesterday revealed.

“My soul cannot rest until I shed blood.”

Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, NJ, were busted at JFK Airport on Saturday night, trying to leave the country on separate flights for Cairo, allegedly en route to Somalia for training to kill Americans overseas — and back at home.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said there was “a scuffle” when Alessa refused to get down on the ground.

VIDEO: JIHADISTS IN TRAINING ARRESTED

BRAVE COP NAILED ‘EM

SUSPECTS HOT FOR PREACHER

AIRPORT ARRESTS TAKE OFF

VIDEO: NYPD CHIEF ON JFK TERROR ARRESTS

The pair viewed the move as a stepping stone to terrorist stardom, authorities and friends said.

“We’ll start killing here, if I can’t do it over there,” Alessa, the son of Palestinian-Jordanian immigrants, said, according to the complaint.

“Freaking Major-Nidal-shaved-face-Palestinian-crazy guy, he’s not better than me,” Alessa allegedly said, referring to Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the shrink who gunned down 13 fellow soldiers and injured scores more at Fort Hood in Texas.

“I’ll do twice what he did. I wanna, like, be the world’s known terrorist.”

Not to be outdone, Almonte — a native of the Dominican Republic who had converted to Islam and started calling himself Omar — allegedly said he wanted to send Americans home “in caskets.”

“Any Muslim that gets . . . even a 10 percent out of 100 chance of [waging jihad] should risk it . . . because [it’s] better than sitting back here and working like a dog . . . and being somebody’s puppy,” Almonte seethed, according to the complaint.

Almonte also allegedly boasted, “I’m gonna get a gun. I’m the type of person to use it anytime . . . I’ll have more bodies on it than . . . the hairs on my beard. You know what I’m saying? It’s already enough that you don’t worship Allah, so . . . that’s a reason for you to die.”

The suspects were set to appear in federal court in Newark on terrorism charges today. They face life in prison on charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap persons outside the United States.

They had been under police surveillance since a tipster sent an e-mailed the FBI in 2006, saying that “all they look for is all those terrorist videos,” according to the complaint.

Sources said the tipster was a family member.

The aspiring jihadists wanted to train with the militant Somali Islamic group al-Shabaab, according to the transcripts.

Their undoing was taking an undercover NYPD officer — an ethnic Egyptian in his mid-20s — into their confidence in 2009 and enlisting him in their plan.

Both men’s descent into hate appears to have begun in high school, where they were loners, former friends said.

“Once we got to high school, [Alessa] got very shady. He grew out his beard and started dressing differently. He got picked on because of the way he looked, and he had to quit and go to a prep school,” said Daniel Forbes, 20, a former classmate in North Bergen.

“He always isolated himself from being American.”

Almonte and Alessa started hanging out with a group troubled Arabic kids who called themselves the Arabian Knights, neighbors said.

“There was a problem a year or so ago when [Almonte] was arrested for smoking pot,” said neighbor David Castro, 50, an Army vet who served in Iraq.

“What bothers me about this is terrorism followed me here.”

Almonte’s father, Pedro, a school-bus driver, said he was distraught over the accusations.

“I’ve been told not to talk to anyone. My wife over there is crying. Her nerves are very bad over all of this,” he said.

In an interview this morning, he said he didn’t support his son’s alleged love for terror.

“I’m not supporting anything that does something wrong,” he said.

In 2007, Alessa and Almonte traveled to Jordan in hopes of being recruited by al Qaeda or sneaking into Iraq, according to the complaint.

They were turned away at the Iraqi border, the complaint said, and al Qaeda never contacted them.

Additional reporting by Steve White, Jamie Schram, Larry Celona, Reuven Fenton and Christina Carrega

perry.chiaramonte@nypost.com

