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June 14, 2007
Six Men Charged in Fort Dix Plot Plead Not Guilty
By KAREEM FAHIM
CAMDEN, N.J., June 14 — Six men accused of planning to kill soldiers at the Fort Dix military base pleaded not guilty today to the charges against them, accusations that include training with guns, conducting surveillance of military installations and acquiring weapons in preparation for the attack on the base.

The six men, from southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, were arrested last month after prosecutors said two of them tried to buy weapons from a government informer. Their arraignment today, in United States District Court, lasted about half an hour. One by one, the men, wearing matching drab olive jumpsuits, blue slippers and shackles, shuffled into the packed courtroom and sat next to their lawyers.

Five of the men — Mohamed Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Serdar Tatar, 23; and three brothers, Eljvir, 23, Shain, 26, and Dritan Duka, 28 — face charges including conspiring to kill members of the United States military. The sixth man, Agron Abdullahu, 24, is charged with supplying the Duka brothers with weapons.

Federal agents said they were tipped off about the plot in January 2006, after a clerk at an electronics store passed along a videotape showing 10 men shooting assault weapons at a firing range. Along with that evidence, the government has said it has other surveillance recordings of the men, who they have called Islamic extremists, hatching their plot.

The Duka brothers, all illegal immigrants, also face charges of possession of firearms by an alien.

In a separate hearing after the arraignment, United States attorneys provided a bit of detail about the evidence, saying there were “moreâ€