WAYNE PARRY
FORT DIX
Six foreign-born Muslims were accused by the US yesterday of plotting to attack an army base in New Jersey and massacre American soldiers, a plot investigators say was foiled when the suspects asked a shop to turn a video of them firing weapons into a DVD.
The accused, all from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout Fort Dix.
Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting them to any international terror groups such as al Qaeda, but several of the men said they were ready to kill and die in the name of Allah.
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 and conducted surveillance at other military installations.
"This was a serious plot put together by people who were intent on harming Americans," said US Attorney Christopher Christie. "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 more than a year ago and secretly recorded the accused, five of whom lived in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb 20 from Fort Dix.
Suspect 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 holy war."
The six were arrested on Monday night trying to buy assault weapons from an FBI informant. They were yesterday due to face charges of conspiracy to kill US servicemen.
Four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one in Jordan and one in Turkey. All had lived in the United States for years, three illegally.
One suspect spoke of using rocket-propelled grenades to kill at least 100 soldiers.
"If you want to do anything here, there is Fort Dix . . . and I assure you that you can hit an American base very easily," Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer was recorded as saying.
"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."
In January last year, a shopkeeper alerted the FBI about a "disturbing" video he had been asked to copy on to a DVD.
The video showed 10 young men in their early 20s "shooting assault weapons at a firing range . . . while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic Allah Akbar' (God is great)," the complaint said. The 10 included six of those arrested, authorities said.
Two months later, the group had been infiltrated by an informant.
Christie said one suspect delivered pizzas to the base from nearby Cookstown, using that cover to scout Fort Dix.
The men also allegedly conducted surveillance at other area military installations, including Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a Philadelphia Coast Guard station.-AP
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article