6 Men Arrested in Fort Dixon Attack Plan

Danielle Dean
One New Jersey store clerk helped foil a Fort Dixon attack. This clerk became suspicious when he was asked to copy a video of 10 young men firing assault weapons and screaming about Jihad. This clerk alerted the FBI about the disturbing video. Six of the ten men shown in the video were arrested Monday night while attempting to purchase AK-47 assault weapons, M-16s and other weapons from an FBI informant. These men went to federal court Tuesday and are being held without bail until their hearing on Friday. Five were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. military personnel; the sixth was charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants in obtaining weapons.

The FBI was able to infiltrated the group a year ago. They kept surveillance of these terrorists. All six were in their twenties and born in former Yugoslavia or the Middle East. Three were illegally living in the United States, two actually had green cards ; and the sixth is a legal U.S. Citizen. These men trained by watched terrorist videos, by playing paintball in the woods, and taking target practice. One of these men was a pizza delivery man accused of using his job to learn about the base. These men also did spied on other bases including Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and a Philadelphia Coast Guard station.

The men had the goal of attacking Fort Dixon to destroy as many soldiers as possible. "We had a group that was forming a platoon to take on an army. They identified their target, they did their reconnaissance. They had maps. And they were in the process of buying weapons. Luckily, we were able to stop that," said FBI agent J.P. Weis.

Although no direct link to al-Qaida has been found, one suspect Eljvir Duka is quoted as saying, "In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone ... attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad." Another suspect, Serdar Tatar, is also quoted as saying "It doesn't matter to me whether I get locked up, arrested or get taken away, or I die, it doesn't matter. I'm doing it in the name of Allah."

FBI agent J.P. Weis stated that there is a new type of terrorist that are not tied to al-Qaida but follow its believes. These terrorists could pose as big as threat as the larger groups because they are not as easly seen.

Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18549005/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/ap_on_re_us/fort_dix_plot

Published by Danielle Dean

Like most 20- somethings my life started off just like I planned. I graduate in 2003 with a degree in Business Management from the University of West Florida. I had my first son in 2005 and became a work a...  View profile

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  • Austin Cooper5/15/2007

    Wow.

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