On recording, suspects talked about holy war in US

By GEOFF MULVIHILL
The Associated Press

CAMDEN, N.J. - One of the men accused of plotting to attack soldiers on Fort Dix said it was time to bring holy war to American soil after listening to an Islamist lecture, an informant testified Wednesday.

Dritan Duka did not seem to be influenced by the man being paid by the government, unlike other recordings played in the seven-week trial.

On a recording informant Besnik Bakalli made on March 10, 2007, the day after the men watched a video of a lecture by Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni imam who lived in the United States for a time, Bakalli can be heard asking Duka where he wanted to strike.

"I say here because he gave the fatwa," or religious decree, Duka responds. "Hit them here."

Duka and four other foreign-born Muslims are charged with conspiring to kill military personnel, attempted murder and weapons offenses. They were arrested in May 2007, and no attack was carried out.


The men, who were living in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill and in their 20s when they were arrested, could face life in prison if convicted.

Defense lawyers say the men weren't seriously planning anything.

Earlier recordings showed the men saying they wanted to fight abroad on behalf of Islam.

But Bakalli told jurors that Duka believed that the lecture gave a religious order to strike in the United States.

"We need the RPGs," or rocket-propelled grenades, Duka said. "Because we have enough people. We are seven of us."

He also gives Bakalli a timeline: "It's something that will take six months to a year."

On cross-examination, Bakalli said he did not talk to the men about Fort Dix or other specific targets.

December 3, 2008 10:02 PM

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