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"Video, setup led to arrest of 6 accused of Ft. Dix attack plot
May 8, 2007
By JOHN SHIFFMAN
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
CAMDEN, N.J. — The FBI arrested six people Monday night, including five in Cherry Hill, N.J., for an alleged plot to kill soldiers at Ft. Dix, several federal officials said.
“If you want to do anything here, there is Ft. Dix and I don’t want to exaggerate, and I assure that you can hit an American base very easily,†one of the men told an FBI informant, according to the FBI. “You take a map and draw it and then you calculate that there are areas where there are 100 to 200 invididuals ...“When you got a military base, you need mortars and RPGs,†the man allegedly said.
“My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers,†the man on the tape said. “You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place up.â€
Greg Reinhert, a Justice Department spokesman in Camden, N.J., described the six as “Islamic radicals ... who were involved in a plot to kill U.S. soldiers at Ft. Dix in New Jersey.â€
“Their alleged intention was to conduct an armed assault on the Army base and to kill as many soldiers as possible,†he said.
A Justice Department spokesman in Washington noted that none of the suspects is charged with terrorism crimes.
“We have no indication that they were receiving direction from a foreign terrorist organization,†said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd. “However, they were engaged in weapons training, surveilled targets and discussed killing large numbers of servicemen, and so that certainly warranted a strong law enforcement response.â€
They also targeted Dover Air Force Base, but determined that it was too well-guarded to attack, the FBI said.
While training for their alleged Ft. Dix mission in the Poconos in February, some of the men allegedly discussed a planned attack on two American warships that were supposedly going to be docked in Philadelphia next year, the FBI said.
During a meeting on March 16, also apparently recorded by the FBI, one of the men said:
“You know where the stadiums are in Philadelphia? There is the Navy base and every year they have the Army-Navy ball game and they come and stay one or two weeks. The Navy base will then be full of people. You see this is an opportunity and the beauty of this location specifically if you have the proper weaponry, is that you can hit it ...â€
Four of the men charged have been living in Cherry Hill and hail from the former Yugoslavia: Mohamed Shnewer and brothers Dritan, Eljzir and Shaine Duka.
The others charged are Serdar Tatar of Philadelphia and Agron Abdullahu of Williamstown, N.J. One was born in Jordan, one in Turkey.
The investigation began more than a year ago, according to an affidavit from FBI agent John J. Ryan.
The tipster called the FBI on Jan. 31, 2006, and said that someone had brought a “disturbing†video to have duplicated.
“The DVD depicted 10 young men who appeared to be in their early-20s shooting assault weapons at a firing range in a militia-like style while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic, ‘Allah Akbar,’ or ‘God is Great.’â€
In March 2006, an FBI cooperator infiltrated the group, the FBI said, and began recording his conversations with the Shnewer.
On a laptop computer belonging to one suspect, the FBI found a file labeled “19,†and “what appears to be the last will and testament of at least two of the hijackers†in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI said.
On July 29, a second FBI informant recorded a meeting with the three Dukas and Shnewer, during which they watched videos on the laptop that included “armed attacks on and the killing of U.S. military personnel,†the FBI said.
Three days later, the FBI said, the informant recorded a meeting with Shnewer in which he said the six were part of a “group that was planning to attack a U.S. military base.â€
“Shnewer explained that they could utilize six or seven jihadists to attack and kill at least one hundred soldiers by using rocket-propelled grenades,†the FBI said.
Carolee Nisbet, a public information officer at Ft. Dix, said: “I understand that they weren’t just targeting Ft. Dix, that it was a multiple-base plan to attack several bases in the Northeast.†She declined to elaborate.
Some of the six men tried to purchase automatic weapons from a local gun dealer before the arrests, sources said.
“These guys were absolutely serious,†one official said.
Tatar provided the group with a map to the base, a federal official said.
Their nationalities could not be confirmed Tuesday morning, but several are believed to be naturalized U.S. citizens.
At the base this morning, Nisbet said: “They are going to make the security procedures more stringent, but we’re not going to increase the threat level. We are just going to make people more aware of their surroundings.â€
All six men are expected to be arraigned in federal court in Camden Tuesday, according to Reinert.
Ft. Dix is a 13,400-acre military post near Exit 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike in Burlington County. On an average day, there are about 15,000 to 16,000 soliders and civilians. It is a regional reserve and mobilization site, the largest such site in the country.
Ft. Dix spokesman David Moore issued a statement Tuesday morning that says:
“Security at Ft. Dix remains stringent in the wake of arrests Monday of six men who were allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on the post. This alleged attack is a reminder that we are a nation at war, and that each of us must be vigilant and aware of our surroundings ...
“Mobilization and training continue as scheduled at Ft. Dix, which has mobilized and demobilized more than 95,000 Soldiers since Sept. 11.
“Those passing through checkpoints onto Ft. Dix will notice more frequent vehicle searches and strict adherence to a 100-percent ID check, which may slow traffic.â€
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