"You Go Jihad:" Six Arrested In Plot To Attack Fort Dix, NJ

The Religion of Peace Peaciness:

Six Islamic militants from Yugoslavia and the Middle East were arrested on charges of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army post and ''kill as many soldiers as possible,'' authorities said Tuesday.

In conversations secretly recorded by an FBI informant over the past year, the men talked about killing in the name of Allah and attacking U.S. warships that might dock in Philadelphia, according an FBI criminal complaint.

''This was a serious plot put together by people who were intent on harming Americans,'' U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said Tuesday. ''We're very gratified federal law enforcement was able to catch these people before they acted and took innocent life.''

One suspect reportedly spoke of using rocket-propelled grenades to kill at least 100 soldiers at a time, 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,'' suspect Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer said in one conversation secretly recorded by a government informant, according to the criminal complaint.

''It doesn't matter to me whether I get locked up, arrested or get taken away,'' a suspect identified as Serdar Tatar said in another recorded conversation. ''Or I die, it doesn't matter. I'm doing it in the name of Allah.''

Another suspect, Eljvir Duka, was recorded 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.''

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday there is ''no direct evidence'' that the men had ties to international terrorism.

If that's supposed to be reassuring, I'm not reassured.

The FBI was tipped off in January 2006 when a shopkeeper alerted agents about a ''disturbing'' video he had been asked to copy onto a DVD, according to court documents. The video showed 10 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.

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

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''They were planning an attack on Fort Dix in which they would kill as many soldiers as possible,'' Drewniak said.

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Shnewer named Fort Dix and a nearby Navy base, explaining that the group ''could utilize six or seven jihadists to attack and kill at least one hundred soldiers by using rocket-propelled grenades'' or other weapons, the complaints said. The Navy base was not named in the papers.

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The description of the suspects as ''Islamic militants'' renewed fears in New Jersey's Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim men from New Jersey were rounded up and detained by authorities in the months following the 2001 attacks, but none was connected to that plot.

You know who else the description of the suspects as "Islamic militants" renewed fears in? In everyone not in NJ's Muslim community.

posted by Ace at 02:55 PM

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