Thread: Dix case will rest on tapes, U.S. says

Posted on Sat, Jul. 19, 2008


Dix case will rest on tapes, U.S. says
In filings, prosecutors said the conversations will prove the guilt of the five alleged terrorists.
By George Anastasia

Inquirer Staff Writer

The tapes tell the story.
And the story is about an al-Qaeda-inspired, although not directed, plot to attack Fort Dix and murder American soldiers.

That was the gist of a series of pretrial motions filed yesterday by federal prosecutors for the forthcoming Fort Dix Five terrorist trial.

The motions, backed by repeated references to secretly recorded conversations, provide a detailed look at how the government intends to present its case.

The trial of suspected terrorists Mohamad Shnewer, 23; Serdar Tatar, 24; and brothers Dritan, 29, Shain, 27, and Eljvir Duka, 24, is scheduled to begin in U.S. District Court in Camden in late September.

"The heart of the United States' case is the dozens of conspiratorial conversations involving the defendants," prosecutors wrote in one of four lengthy motions filed in opposition to defense motions filed last month.

"Those conversations included plans to attack Fort Dix and to kill American soldiers, discussions of the supposed justifications for such attacks rooted in radical jihadist ideology," and plans for training sessions and weapons acquisitions, prosecutors wrote.

The tapes were made by two cooperating witnesses who allegedly infiltrated the group. Both are expected to testify for the prosecution.

One of the motions filed yesterday was in opposition to a defense motion seeking to have many of those conversations suppressed.

The government also opposed defense motions seeking a change of venue, seeking the dismissal of several counts of the indictment, and asking that references to "al-Qaeda and jihadist ideology" be stricken from the indictment and not presented to the jury.

Prosecutors argued that those references were "highly relevant to prove the defendants' motivations" and to prove "the fact that the defendants' plot, although disturbing and audacious, was one that they intended to carry out and not, as they have suggested in their pretrial papers, merely loose talk."

The government filings referred again and again to recorded conversations in which the defendants allegedly talked about jihad and referred to al-Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden.

One motion cited an Aug. 5, 2006, conversation in which Shnewer, a U.S. citizen who was born in Jordan, praised the Sept. 11, 2001, attackers as "19 brothers who changed the whole world, changed the face of this Earth" by following the lead of bin Laden.

Prosecutors returned to the terrorist inspiration for the plot again when they cited a March 9, 2007, conversation in which Dritan Duka encouraged the others to come to his house to listen to a lecture, "Constants on the Path of Jihad," by an associate of al-Qaeda.

Duka and his brothers, ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, are illegal aliens who came to the United States and settled in the Cherry Hill area, where they attended high school.

Tatar is a legal U.S. resident who immigrated from Turkey in 1998.

Tatar was living in Philadelphia and the other defendants were living in South Jersey when they were arrested in May 2007. The arrests capped a 16-month federal investigation.

"Allegations that the defendants were inspired by al-Qaeda, the pre-eminent jihadist organization in the world, which has successfully launched terrorist attacks that have killed thousands of Americans at home and abroad, are relevant to prove that the defendants intended to enter into the charged conspiracy and were not engaged merely in 'idle chatter,' " prosecutors wrote.

U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler, who is presiding over the case, is expected to rule on the motions within the next two months.

A status conference in the case has been scheduled for next week.

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Posted on Sat, Aug. 2, 2008


Fort Dix case will stay in Camden, judge rules
By Troy Graham

Inquirer Staff Writer

The Fort Dix case will stay in Camden.
> A federal judge yesterday denied a defense motion to move the trial of five men accused of plotting an armed attack on Fort Dix to another venue because of publicity.

> District Court Judge Robert B. Kugler also denied a raft of other defense motions seeking to suppress evidence, dismiss some counts of the indictment, and try some defendants separately.

> Defense attorneys had asked for part of the indictment to be stricken that says the men were inspired by al-Qaeda and terrorist attacks on the United States. They said the language could inflame a jury.

> Prosecutors said the references demonstrated what motivated the men, all foreign-born Muslims.

> "It goes to prove their intent to commit the crimes charged," said Deputy U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick. "This gives [jurors] an accurate, realistic impression of the government theory."

> Kugler yesterday called the references "explosive stuff" that was "prejudicial, but not unduly so."

> Although jurors will hear testimony about al-Qaeda and Islamist doctrine during the trial, Kugler agreed not to talk about al-Qaeda when discussing the charges with the jury at the start of the trial.

> The trial of Mohamad Shnewer, 23; Serdar Tatar, 24; and brothers Dritan, 29, Shain, 27, and Eljvir Duka, 24, is scheduled to begin late next month.

> They face life in prison if convicted of conspiring to kill military personnel.

> All five men spent most of their lives in South Jersey or the Pennsylvania suburbs. Prosecutors said they had planned to use a pizza-delivery pass to get into Fort Dix and open fire.

> A sixth man, Agron Abdullahu, was sentenced in March to 20 months in prison for allowing the Dukas, illegal aliens from the former Yugoslavia, to fire his guns during trips to the Poconos.

> Defense attorneys likely will attack the credibility of two government informants who secretly recorded hundreds of hours of conversations with the men - possibly arguing that the informants entrapped the defendants.

> Troy Archie, one of the defense attorneys, said yesterday that one informant claims in a tape to have committed a homicide in Kosovo or Albania. Archie asked for any evidence the prosecutors have to support that claim.

> The other informant, identified in court as Mahmoud Omar, is an Egyptian immigrant convicted of federal bank fraud in 2001.

> Archie said the informants "are doing all the talking about this conspiracy" on the tapes.

> Shnewer's attorney, Rocco Cipparone, read from a transcript of a recorded conversation in which Omar urges Shnewer to strike back at the United States.

> Shnewer appears to resist, saying that they should pray because "he and only he can change destiny," referring to God.

> "It's Mr. Shnewer saying, 'If you want to go do something, go do it,' " Cipparone said.

> But Fitzpatrick said there were "countless conversations in which Mr. Shnewer is the one doing the talking . . . about putting bullets in the heads of young Americans."

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