Five would-be jihadists who prosecutors say were inspired by al Qaeda were convicted Monday of plotting to “kill as many American soldiers as possible” in an attack on Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey, but the men were acquitted of attempted murder charges.
The men, all in their 20s and described by authorities as “radical Islamists,” could face life in prison when they are sentenced in April in federal court in New Jersey.
“Today’s verdicts underscore the need for continued vigilance against homegrown terror threats,” said Patrick Rowan, assistant attorney general for national security. “While these defendants were not members of an international terrorist organization, their involvement in weapons training, their surveillance of domestic targets and their discussions of killing U.S. military personnel posed a serious threat that required the law enforcement disruption and the prosecutions upheld by the jury today.”
The jury delivered its verdict after more than five days of deliberations that followed a 12-week trial during which prosecutors presented evidence of the plot hatched by Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Serdar Tatar and brothers Dritan Duka, Shain Duka and Eljvir Duka. All are Muslim immigrants living in the Philadelphia area; the Duka brothers are in the United States illegally.
Attorneys for the men suggested that FBI informants were the ones who instigated the plot.
“I believe they shaped the evidence,” said Schnewer’s attorney, Rocco Cipparone.
Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American- Islamic Relations, echoed those sentiments.
“Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment,” he said. “From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant.”
An FBI criminal complaint said investigators began looking at the men in January 2006 after a video that showed the men firing assault weapons “in militia-like style” at a Poconos range was brought to a Circuit City so it could be copied to a DVD. The complaint said the DVD recorded the men shouting “God is great” in Arabic and urging jihad, or holy war.
On Jan. 31, 2006, the complaint said, a store clerk notified authorities about the DVD.
Authorities also put the men under surveillance while they practiced their attacks in the Poconos, training with paint-ball guns, test-firing weapons and watching videos of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
The FBI instructed two informants, both illegal immigrants with criminal records, to befriend the suspects. Both informants were paid and were offered help obtaining legal resident status.
The five men were arrested in May 2007 in Cherry Hill, N.J., while trying to buy three AK-47 automatic machine guns and four semi-automatic M-16s in a sale set up by undercover FBI agents.
Authorities said the men previously conducted surveillance at Fort Dix and one of the men had delivered pizza there and was able to draw a detailed map from memory.
During meetings with one of the informants, the men said they hoped to kill at least 100 soldiers by using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons.
“At the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone is trying to attack your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad,” Eljvir Duka was recorded as saying, according to authorities.
“These men planned, trained and ceaselessly talked unambiguously about their intention to ambush and kill U.S. soldiers,” said acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Ralph J. Marra Jr. “The word should go out to any other would-be terrorists of the homegrown variety that the United States will find you, infiltrate your group, prosecute you and send you to a federal prison for a very long time.”
This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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