DOCUMENT:

Fort Dix Terror Plot Foiled

FBI: New Jersey jihadists targeted servicemen at Army base

View Document

Fort Dix Terror Plot Foiled

MAY 8--A group of Islamic radicals conspired to kill U.S. servicemen at New Jersey's Fort Dix Army base, but the plot was disrupted when the FBI infiltrated the cell with two paid informants. The terror plan is detailed in the below FBI affidavit, which was filed today in U.S. District Court in Camden, where the six plotters have been charged with planning to kill military members. According to the affidavit, investigators began probing the cell last January, when a video store worker contacted them after a customer brought a DVD to be duplicated. The DVD showed 10 young men 'Shooting assault weapons at a firing range in a militia-like style while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic 'Allah Akbar' ('God is Great').' Within six months, the FBI had placed two cooperating witnesses within the terror cell, and both recorded meetings and phone conversations with the plotters. Along with eyeing Fort Dix, members of the group allegedly surveilled the Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station and Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and a Coast Guard building in Philadelphia. They also reportedly considered an attack timed to the annual Army-Navy college football game in Philadelphia. One of the charged conspirators, Serdar Tatar, was familiar with Fort Dix because his family owns a pizzeria nearby and he had delivered food there. Tatar allegedly obtained a map of the military base and provided it to his cohorts. The wannabe jihadists often viewed terror training videos, clips featuring Osama bin Laden, and a tape containing the last will and testament of at least two of the 9/11 hijackers. They also viewed tapes depicting armed attacks on U.S. military personnel and erupted in laughter when one plotter noted that a Marine's arm was blown off in one such ambush. The affidavit notes that the group recently trained at a firing range in the Poconos (where they rented a house in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania). In a conversation recorded last month by one FBI informant, alleged conspirator Dritan Duka spoke about the need for secrecy. 'I got five kids so I don't wanna go down,' said Duka, who added that were he to be caught, people might think, 'I'm a terrorist.' (20 pages)