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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal government Monday charged six alleged "Islamic radicals" with plotting to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
The six were arrested Monday night, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey said in a written statement, and are expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey, on Tuesday afternoon.
"Their alleged intention was to conduct an armed assault on the army base and to kill as many soldiers as possible," the office said.
The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office scheduled a news conference later on Tuesday to discuss the case.
One of the suspects was born in Jordan, another in Turkey, the attorney's office said. The rest are believed to be from the former Yugoslavia, "either U.S. citizens or living illegally in the United States."
Three of the six are in the U.S. illegally, according to an FBI affidavit filed with the criminal complaints.
According to the affidavit, the case began to take shape in January 2006, when an employee of a store told the FBI someone had brought a "disturbing" video to be duplicated.
The video "depicted 10 young men who appeared to be in their early twenties shooting assault weapons at a firing range in a militia-like style while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic 'Allah Akbar,'" Arabic for 'God is Great,' the affidavit said.
The FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force began an investigation immediately, says the affidavit filed by Special Agent John J. Ryan.
Two paid informants successfully infiltrated the group, one in March 2006 and the other in July, Ryan's affidavit says. Both of them "consensually recorded" meetings and conversations, the affidavit says.
One of the informants claimed to have connections with an arms dealer who could sell the alleged conspirators AK-47 automatic machine guns and other weapons, according to the affidavit. Both took part in firearms training with the group, the affidavit says.
One complaint names as the defendant Dritan Duka, and says he conspired with four others -- Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka and Serdar Tatar -- "to kill officers and employees ... of the United States Government, namely members of the uniformed services."
The sixth individual, named in an FBI affidavit accompanying that complaint, is Agron Abdullahu. He is charged with aiding and abetting the three Dukas, "who were then aliens illegally and unlawfully in the United States, to possess in and affecting commerce firearms."
The defendants did not immediately release statements or respond to the charges.
The complaint says the group conducted firearms training in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania, in the Pocono Mountains. It also says Shnewer conducted surveillance at several U.S. military sites: Fort Dix and Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and the U.S. Coast Guard building in Philadelphia.
It says Tatar acquired a map of Fort Dix and distributed it to others.
According to the FBI affidavit, Tatar had delivered pizzas to Fort Dix while working for his family's restaurant, and Shnewer said Tatar knew the base "like the palm of his hand."
The complaint alleges that Dritan Duka ordered four AK-47 Kalashnikov fully-automatic machine guns as well as M-16 firearms and handguns, and that Shnewer ordered an AK-47 Kalashnikov as well.
The White House said there is no suspected link to any international terrorist group.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the six "are not being charged with being members of an international terrorism organization. At least at this point there is no evidence they received direction from international foreign terrorist organizations. However their involvement in weapons training, operational surveillance, and discussions about killing American military personnel warranted a strong law enforcement response."
While authorities are glad to have arrested them, the individuals are "hardly hard core terrorists," one law enforcement source said.
Another source said that while the allegations are "troubling," they are "not the type that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up."
Fort Dix is used to train members of the Army Reserve and National Guard for missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.
It was used in 1999 to house ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo, according to the Defense Department Web site.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/08/fortdix.plot/index.html
[ May 08, 2007, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: 1968_Fastback ]
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