Thread: Feds: Fort Dix 5 member tried to recruit inmates to al Qaeda

Feds: Fort Dix 5 member tried to recruit inmates to al Qaeda
by John P. Martin
Wednesday December 12, 2007, 12:19 AM

One of the defendants accused of plotting a terror strike against Fort Dix told a fellow inmate he was willing to "sacrifice all for the sake of Allah in jihad" while another tried in November to disseminate an al Qaeda recruiting video in prison, federal prosecutors said yesterday.

Prosecutors disclosed the allegations in a motion filed last night to keep the five defendants imprisoned under tight security before trial.

The revelations "further establish their commitment to jihad, the violent nature (of) the charged conspiracy, the defendants' willingness to die as martyrs and, one may reasonably conclude, an attempt to recruit other inmates to their cause," wrote Deputy U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hammer.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler will hear arguments in Camden next week on the defendants' request to be transferred out of a segregated housing unit at the federal detention center in Philadelphia and into the general inmate population -- or to be released on bail so they can better prepare for trial.

The five men -- four from Cherry Hill and one from Philadelphia - were arrested last spring after a 15-month investigation during which two FBI informants infiltrated the alleged plot. Prosecutors contend the suspects were radical Islamists intent on storming the southern New Jersey base with automatic weapons to kill as many American soldiers as possible.

Each has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill members of the U.S. military, a crime punishable by life.

Since their arrests in May, the defendants have repeatedly complained to the judge they have been unjustly treated at the prison, denied access to their families and attorneys and unable to properly prepare for trial.

Prosecutors, however, contend the strict security is justified. This past summer, they said, prison officials intercepted messages one of the defendants had been sending to another inmate.

"Now you see why we were going to sacrifice all for the sake of Allah in jihad," Eljvir Duka, who was charged along with his brothers, Dritan and Shain Duka, allegedly wrote to another prisoner. "Fight in the way of Allah first with the mouth then with the sword."

The Dukas are illegal Albanian immigrants from Cherry Hill. The other defendants are Serdar Tatar of Philadelphia, a legal immigrant from Turkey, and Mohamad Shnewer of Cherry Hill, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan.

Prosecutors also said prison officials last month found a critical piece of evidence in the case - an al Qaeda recruitment video that they say the group watched in a Pocono training session -- hidden inside a book in the prison law library. They contend the defendants, who have been allowed to review pieces of evidence before trial, wanted to share the material with other inmates.

"The fact that defendant Shnewer and, perhaps, his co-conspirators may be spreading jihadist recruitment videos to other inmates clearly raises grave security concerns for the warden and again supports the reasonableness of continued administrative detention for these defendants," the prosecutors wrote.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/1 ... ied_t.html

The Dukas are illegal Albanian immigrants from Cherry Hill. The other defendants are Serdar Tatar of Philadelphia, a legal immigrant from Turkey, and Mohamad Shnewer of Cherry Hill, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan.

Isn't this indicative of a growing Fifth Column our current policies allow?