Kosovo
Albanians arrested in plot to kill American soldiers
May 08, 2007 10:06 AM
FORT DIX, N.J.-Six men described by federal prosecutors as "Islamic
militants" were arrested on charges they plotted to attack the Fort Dix
Army base and "kill as many soldiers as possible," authorities said Tuesday.
The six were scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Camden later
Tuesday to face charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. servicemen, said Michael
Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey.
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truck drives through a gate at the Fort Dix Army Base where Muslim Kosovo
Albanians were in a plot to 'kill as many soldiers as possible,' federal
authorities said Tuesday. |
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Officials said four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia,
one in Jordan and one in Turkey. Five of them lived in Cherry Hill, 10
miles east of Philadelphia and 20 miles southwest of Fort Dix, Drewniak
said.
"They were planning an attack on Fort Dix in which they would kill as
many soldiers as possible," Drewniak said.
The video depicted the six men charged in the case, including three
ethnic Albanian brothers brothers from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, who are
living illegally in the U.S., the complaint said.
They are Dritan Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir Duka, 23. Mohamad
Shnewer, 22, a Cherry Hill resident originally from Jordan, and Serdar
Tatar, 23, a Philadelphia resident from Turkey, also were charged. Agron
Abdullahu, 24, of Buena Vista Township, was charged with aiding and abetting.
The Dukas and Abdullahu are ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia,
authorities said.
Two of the men were arrested in Cherry Hill as they met an FBI informant
to buy three AK-47 automatic machine guns and four semi-automatic M-16
rifles, authorities said.
``There is no evidence that they received direction from an international
terrorism organization,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said earlier
today. ``There is no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist plot.''
A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because
documents in the case remain sealed, said the attack was stopped in the
planning stages.
Authorities believe the men trained in the Poconos for the attack and
also conducted surveillance at other area military institutions, including
Fort Monmouth, the official said. The official said that the men had lived
in the United States for some time.
The six were arrested trying to buy automatic weapons in a sale set-up
by law enforcement authorities, the official said.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said there is "no direct evidence" that
the men arrested in the Fort Dix plot have ties to international terrorism.
"They are not charged with being members of an international terrorism
organization," Snow said. "At least at this point, there is no evidence
that they received direction from international terror organizations. However,
their involvement in weapons training, operational surveillance and discussions
about killing American military personnel warranted a strong law enforcement
response."
Asked if those arrested had any ties to al-Qaida, Snow referred questions
to the FBI and the U.S. attorney, but said those officials "seem to indicate
that there is no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist tie."
Jerri Williams, spokeswoman for the FBI in Philadelphia, said U.S. Attorney
Christopher Christie and J.P. Weis, special agent in charge of the FBI
in Philadelphia, would release more information at a news conference later
Tuesday.
Fort Dix is used to train soldiers, particularly reservists. In 1999,
it sheltered more than 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees during the NATO bombing
campaign against Yugoslavia.
After that war, refugees were allowed to return to the U.N.-run province
of Kosovo in Serbia or to seek permanent residency in the United States.
The U.N. Security Council is considering whether to approve a plan to grant
Kosovo independence from Serbia under the supervision of the European Union
and the United States.
Jeff Sagnip, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. James Saxton, who represents
Fort Dix, said the base, along with adjacent McGuire Air Force Base, has
been put on its highest security alert level.
He said Fort Dix typically has 15,000 people, including 3,000 soldiers;
McGuire, which is adjacent to Fort Dix, has about 11,500 people.
Soldiers at Fort Dix have been training for warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Sagnip said.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the once-open Fort Dix
has been closed to the public. There are heavily armed guards at entrances,
along with X-ray machines and concrete barriers to make it impossible for
vehicles to rush the entrances.
But the main road through neighboring Cookstown cuts through the base
and is accessible to the public. A half-dozen locations on the base, including
at least two where soldiers were conducting maneuvers Tuesday morning,
were only a few hundred yards off the main road and accessible to anyone.
The description of the suspects as "Islamic militants" was causing renewed
worry among New Jersey's Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim men from
New Jersey were rounded up and detained by authorities in the months following
the Sept. 11 attacks, but none was connected to that plot.
"If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to
the fullest extent of the law," said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented
scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. "But when the government says
'Islamic militants,' it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy
are synonymous.
"Don't equate actions with religion," he said.
