Terrorists Arrested in New Jersey

Six men have been arrested in Mount Laurel, NJ, on charges that they are Islamic militants who were planning on attacking local Army base Fort Dix to "kill as many soldiers as possible" with gunfire.

Five of the militants lived in nearby Cherry Hill, NJ, only 10 miles east of Philadelphia. Fort Dix is about 20 miles northeast of Cherry Hill. Apparently, one of the suspects had a job delivering pizzas to the base and he capitalized on that to make plans for the possible attack. "He delivered pizzas to the base and that gave him the ability to map out the who, what, where, when and why of their activities," said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, (R-N.J.).

White House spokesman Tony Snow said, "They are not charged with being members of an international terrorism organization. At least at this point, there is no evidence that they received direction from international terror organizations."

New Jersey State Police Captain Al Della Fave says that the investigation had been going on for approximately one year. The FBI got a tip in early 2006 after a criminal complaint was filed by a worker in a video store. Someone brought a video to the store to be copied into DVD format. The video featured 10 men, including the six who have been arrested, calling for a jihad while shooting assault weapons militia style in a training ground somewhere in a woodlands setting, which authorities believe was likely in the Poconos mountains. The men had made a deal to purchase AK-47 assault rifles from an arms dealer who was cooperating with the FBI in secret. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said, "What concerns us is, obviously, they began conducting surveillance and weapons training in the woods and were discussing killing large numbers of soldiers." Snow says that in the opinions so far of the FBI and the US Attorney's office, the data "seem to indicate that there is no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist tie," and the suspects are not members of Al-Quaida.

The suspects have been called "Islamic radicals" by United States Attorney's Office spokesman Greg Reinert. A member of the state police tells us that all of the suspects recently converted to Islam and were not born Moslems. So far it seems that they came up with the plan on their own, but have clearly been inspired by radical anti-Western Moslem concepts.

One Federal source says, "While the group's alleged actions are alarming, it may not have gone beyond the concept stage." The suspects had reportedly also scouted out other Army bases in the region such as Fort Monmouth.

Sources:

Associated Press

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