It isn't fake in that sense. To the the local police departments they are as real as it gets, but in fact the puppetmaster that set 99% of the terror plots up is the FBI. The FBI is so compartmentalized that almost nobody in the FBI has any clue what the terror group are involved in creating. Certainly the local PD has no idea, the FBI immediately takes control and the PD are there to do grunt work only.

The other person's memory is incorrect, the older brother that the FBI was grooming for so long witnessed by his mom was the one who got killed. The other one that got killed was not related and was being "interviewed" at his own house (likely an FBI informant) and supposedly one of the agents conveniently stepped out of the room while his partner offed him in "self defense". It took care of that little loose end.

There were explosives being dismantled nowhere along their supposed walking routes, etc. This was a massive FBI instituted attack like most of them. It was GLP's greatest thread ever.