6 Muslims charged with terror plot

FORT DIX, N.J. (AP) - Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack the Army’s Fort Dix and massacre scores of U.S. soldiers - a plot investigators say was foiled when the men took a video of themselves firing assault weapons to a store to have the footage put onto a DVD.

The defendants, all of them from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base.

Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting them to any international terror organizations such as al-Qaida. But several of the men said they were ready to kill and die “in the name of Allah,” according to court records.

Their goal was “to kill as many soldiers as possible” in attacks with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns, prosecutors said.

They also allegedly spoke of attacking the Navy base in Philadelphia during the annual Army-Navy football game, when the place would be full of sailors, and conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region.

“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.”

Investigators said they infiltrated the group with an informant well over a year ago and bided their time while they secretly recorded the defendants, five of whom lived in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb about 20 miles from Fort Dix.

One defendant, Eljvir Duka, was recorded as saying: “In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone is trying attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad.”

The six were arrested Monday night trying to buy AK-47 assault weapons, M-16s and other weapons from an FBI informant, authorities said. They were scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Camden on Tuesday afternoon to face charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. servicemen.

Four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one was born in Jordan and one came from Turkey, authorities said. All had lived in the United States for years. Three were in the United States illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay in this country permanently; and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.

One suspect spoke of using rocket-propelled grenades to kill at least 100 soldiers, according to court documents.

“If you want to do anything here, there is Fort Dix and I don’t want to exaggerate, and I assure you that you can hit an American base very easily,” Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer was recorded as saying last August.

“It doesn’t matter to me whether I get locked up, arrested or get taken away,” Serdar Tatar was quoted as saying. “Or I die, it doesn’t matter. I’m doing it in the name of Allah.”

Asked if those arrested had any links to al-Qaida, White House spokesman Tony Snow said it appears “there is no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist tie.”

In court documents, prosecutors said the suspects came to the attention of authorities in January 2006 when a shopkeeper alerted the FBI about a “disturbing” video he had been asked to copy onto a DVD.

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