Reagan Smash
05-08-2007, 08:41 PM
Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested Tuesday and accused of plotting to kill soldiers at the Army's Fort Dix with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, federal authorities said.
"This was a serious plot put together by people who were intent on harming Americans," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said. "We're very gratified federal law enforcement was able to catch these people before they acted and took innocent life."
The six men, shackled in jumpsuits, appeared in U.S. District Court in Camden. Five were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. military personnel; the sixth was charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants in obtaining weapons.
Officials said four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one in Jordan and one in Turkey. Five of them lived in Cherry Hill, 10 miles east of Philadelphia and 20 miles southwest of Fort Dix, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Army | New Jersey | Fort | By Mel Evans, AP
All had lived in the United States for years. Three were in the country illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay permanently; and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said there "is no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist tie" in the case.
According to court documents, the six trained with semiautomatic weapons, handguns and shotguns at a wooded resort area in New Jersey in October.
The defendants allegedly spoke of attacking a Navy installation in Philadelphia during the annual Army-Navy football game, when the stadium would be full of sailors, and conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region.
"Today we dodged a bullet. And looking at the weapons they were trying to obtain, we dodged a lot of bullets," FBI agent J.P. Weiss said.
One of the suspects had delivered pizza to Fort Dix from his parents' nearby pizzeria and was intimately familiar with the grounds, Christie said.
The complaint said authorities were tipped off to the plan in January 2006, after one of the suspects tried to have a duplicate made of a video that showed 10 men, including the six arrested, shooting assault weapons at a firing range while calling for jihad (holy war) and shouting in Arabic, "God is great!" A store clerk found the video "disturbing" and alerted the FBI.
The complaint identified the defendants as Dritan Duka, Mohamad Shnewer, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka, Serdar Tatar and Agron Abdullahu.
It said that Dritan, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka, who worked at a roofing company in New Jersey, were living illegally in the United States. Shnewer is a U.S. citizen.
The FBI, in the complaint, said much of the information in the case from a paid informant who taped conversations with some of the key players and joined them in surveillance activities.
In one conversation, Shain Duka is quoted as saying: "We can do a lot of damage with seven people; we can do big things with seven people."
The complaint said Tatar, in another conversation, said that for all he knew, the informant could be working for the FBI. "It doesn't matter to me whether I get locked up, arrested or get taken away," he said. "It doesn't matter. Or I die; doesn't matter. I'm doing it in the name of Allah."
After one training session, Christie said, the conspirators returned to their cabin in the woods to watch videos of attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq. "During one video, they watched blowing off the arm of a U.S. Marine, and the room burst out into laughter," Christie said.
The complaint quoted Shnewer, a taxi driver from Philadelphia, as telling the informant that he had been saving money "for some time" to finance the attack. "I assure you that you can hit an American base very easily," he said.
At another point, Shnewer allegedly said that he chose Fort Dix "because I know that Serdar knows it like the palm of his hand" because he used to deliver pizzas there. The complaint said law enforcement authorities had confirmed that Tatar's family owns a pizzeria near the base.
Shnewer was quoted as saying that his intent "is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers."
According to the complaint, Shnewer and the informant drove to a spot near Fort Dix that Shnewer said "is exactly what we are looking for."
"You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place (up) and retreat completely without any losses," he said.
The complaint also said the conspirators abandoned plans to hit Dover Air Force Base in Delaware because of high security at the facility.
In October, Eljvir Duka told the informant that the group would need to receive a fatwa before they could attack. The complaint did not elaborate. A fatwa is a ruling on Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar giving permission for a certain act that otherwise might be illegal under Islamic law.
Fort Dix is used to train soldiers, particularly reservists. In 1999, it sheltered more than 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
After that war, refugees were allowed to return to the United Nations-run province of Kosovo in Serbia or to seek permanent residency in the United States. The U.N. Security Council is considering whether to approve a plan to grant Kosovo independence from Serbia under the supervision of the European Union and the United States.
Jeff Sagnip, a spokesman for Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., said Fort Dix and the adjacent McGuire Air Force Base have been put on the highest security alert level.
Sagnip said Fort Dix typically has 15,000 people, including 3,000 soldiers; McGuire has about 11,500 people. Soldiers at Fort Dix have been training for warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the base has been closed to the public. There are heavily armed guards at entrances, along with X-ray machines and concrete barriers to make it impossible for vehicles to rush the entrances.
The main road through neighboring Cookstown cuts through the base, however, and is accessible to the public. A half-dozen locations on the base, including at least two where soldiers were conducting maneuvers Tuesday morning, were only a few hundred yards off the main road and accessible to anyone.
Contributing: Douglas Stanglin in McLean, Va.; David Jackson in Washington; the Associated Press
"This was a serious plot put together by people who were intent on harming Americans," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said. "We're very gratified federal law enforcement was able to catch these people before they acted and took innocent life."
The six men, shackled in jumpsuits, appeared in U.S. District Court in Camden. Five were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. military personnel; the sixth was charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants in obtaining weapons.
Officials said four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one in Jordan and one in Turkey. Five of them lived in Cherry Hill, 10 miles east of Philadelphia and 20 miles southwest of Fort Dix, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Army | New Jersey | Fort | By Mel Evans, AP
All had lived in the United States for years. Three were in the country illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay permanently; and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said there "is no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist tie" in the case.
According to court documents, the six trained with semiautomatic weapons, handguns and shotguns at a wooded resort area in New Jersey in October.
The defendants allegedly spoke of attacking a Navy installation in Philadelphia during the annual Army-Navy football game, when the stadium would be full of sailors, and conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region.
"Today we dodged a bullet. And looking at the weapons they were trying to obtain, we dodged a lot of bullets," FBI agent J.P. Weiss said.
One of the suspects had delivered pizza to Fort Dix from his parents' nearby pizzeria and was intimately familiar with the grounds, Christie said.
The complaint said authorities were tipped off to the plan in January 2006, after one of the suspects tried to have a duplicate made of a video that showed 10 men, including the six arrested, shooting assault weapons at a firing range while calling for jihad (holy war) and shouting in Arabic, "God is great!" A store clerk found the video "disturbing" and alerted the FBI.
The complaint identified the defendants as Dritan Duka, Mohamad Shnewer, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka, Serdar Tatar and Agron Abdullahu.
It said that Dritan, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka, who worked at a roofing company in New Jersey, were living illegally in the United States. Shnewer is a U.S. citizen.
The FBI, in the complaint, said much of the information in the case from a paid informant who taped conversations with some of the key players and joined them in surveillance activities.
In one conversation, Shain Duka is quoted as saying: "We can do a lot of damage with seven people; we can do big things with seven people."
The complaint said Tatar, in another conversation, said that for all he knew, the informant could be working for the FBI. "It doesn't matter to me whether I get locked up, arrested or get taken away," he said. "It doesn't matter. Or I die; doesn't matter. I'm doing it in the name of Allah."
After one training session, Christie said, the conspirators returned to their cabin in the woods to watch videos of attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq. "During one video, they watched blowing off the arm of a U.S. Marine, and the room burst out into laughter," Christie said.
The complaint quoted Shnewer, a taxi driver from Philadelphia, as telling the informant that he had been saving money "for some time" to finance the attack. "I assure you that you can hit an American base very easily," he said.
At another point, Shnewer allegedly said that he chose Fort Dix "because I know that Serdar knows it like the palm of his hand" because he used to deliver pizzas there. The complaint said law enforcement authorities had confirmed that Tatar's family owns a pizzeria near the base.
Shnewer was quoted as saying that his intent "is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers."
According to the complaint, Shnewer and the informant drove to a spot near Fort Dix that Shnewer said "is exactly what we are looking for."
"You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place (up) and retreat completely without any losses," he said.
The complaint also said the conspirators abandoned plans to hit Dover Air Force Base in Delaware because of high security at the facility.
In October, Eljvir Duka told the informant that the group would need to receive a fatwa before they could attack. The complaint did not elaborate. A fatwa is a ruling on Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar giving permission for a certain act that otherwise might be illegal under Islamic law.
Fort Dix is used to train soldiers, particularly reservists. In 1999, it sheltered more than 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
After that war, refugees were allowed to return to the United Nations-run province of Kosovo in Serbia or to seek permanent residency in the United States. The U.N. Security Council is considering whether to approve a plan to grant Kosovo independence from Serbia under the supervision of the European Union and the United States.
Jeff Sagnip, a spokesman for Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., said Fort Dix and the adjacent McGuire Air Force Base have been put on the highest security alert level.
Sagnip said Fort Dix typically has 15,000 people, including 3,000 soldiers; McGuire has about 11,500 people. Soldiers at Fort Dix have been training for warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the base has been closed to the public. There are heavily armed guards at entrances, along with X-ray machines and concrete barriers to make it impossible for vehicles to rush the entrances.
The main road through neighboring Cookstown cuts through the base, however, and is accessible to the public. A half-dozen locations on the base, including at least two where soldiers were conducting maneuvers Tuesday morning, were only a few hundred yards off the main road and accessible to anyone.
Contributing: Douglas Stanglin in McLean, Va.; David Jackson in Washington; the Associated Press