Thread: Five of "Fort Dix 6" Face Life In Prison

Five of "Fort Dix 6'' face life in prison

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/15/07
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNT LAUREL — Five of the men charged last week in an alleged plot to attack soldiers on Fort Dix face life prison sentences if they are convicted.

The sixth, Agron Abdullahu, is an entirely different case, his lawyer argued in legal
papers filed Monday.

Public defender Lisa Evans Lewis said her client is a gun lover and she acknowledges he was seen by an informant teaching the alleged plotters to shoot weapons. But she said he is a man who cherishes the United States and would never do anything to harm its people.

"He loves his life in America and credits the American government with saving his family from death and separation," she wrote.

The legal papers are in support of suspect Agron Abdullahu's request to be free on bail as he awaits trial. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Thursday in U.S. District Court in Camden. Federal authorities have said he is dangerous and should not be released.

Abdullahu, 24, was among the so-called Fort Dix Six, who were arrested May 7 after a 15-month FBI investigation that relied heavily on two paid informants who secretly recorded meetings and telephone conversations in which the suspects talked of killing "in the name of Allah."

Authorities said they decided to move in last week because they believed the suspects were trying to buy automatic weapons to use in an attack on the Army post, which primarily trains reservists.

The other men — Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Serdar Tatar, 23; Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 — could be sentenced to life in prison if they are convicted of conspiring to kill military ersonnel.

Abdullahu was arrested the same night as the other five suspects. He is charged with knowingly helping illegal immigrants obtain guns — a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But Lewis said the actual sentence would likely be less than two years if a jury convicted him.

Lewis also denied reports that Abdullahu was a sniper in Kosovo or anywhere else.

Prosecutors portray the Muslim men as driven by hatred of America, a description disputed by relatives, acquaintances and Lewis.

In her brief, Lewis said Abdullahu was born to an ethnic Albanian family in 1982 in Gilan, a city in the nation then known as Yugoslavia. His childhood unfolded as his country was ravaged by war and genocide amid tensions between the majority ethnic Albanians and the minority Serbs.

As NATO forces bombed and occupied the nation, by then known as Kosovo, in 1999, Abdullahu, his parents, three siblings and grandmother joined about a million other refugees who left the country. They walked 30 miles to Macedonia and found refuge in a United Nations camp. Abdullahu was 16.

Abdullahu and his family members were among about 4,000 refugees to get a place in the United States in a lottery. They flew in to Fort Dix and stayed there at first.

With the help of Catholic Charities, they settled in Williamstown, a growing suburb about 15 miles south of Philadelphia.

Abdullahu dropped out of high school after a year and began working full-time for ShopRite supermarkets, the same company where his parents worked.

Eventually, he became a bread baker, a job he held until he was arrested.

With his mother, he bought a house for the family.

For fun, the legal papers say, he works on cars and boats — and shoots weapons at a gun range.

Lewis did not respond to an interview request today. Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on the brief.




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Congressman: Dix attack would likely have failed


VIPs BRIEFED, TOUR BASES
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/15/07
BY CAROL COMEGNO
GANNETT NEW JERSEY

FORT DIX — A South Jersey congressman toured Fort Dix Monday and concluded that a planned terrorist attack against the Army post would have been hard to carry out had it not been thwarted by a federal investigation.

Following a tour of the post and a briefing by its commander, Rep. H. James Saxton, R-N.J., said he was impressed by perimeter security and entry checkpoints where vehicles can be photographed.

Saxton, who was accompanied by U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., said he does not believe weapons and men could have been smuggled onto the post for use against large numbers of soldiers, as six terrorism suspects are charged with plotting prior to their arrest last week. One of the six, Serdar Tatar, was on an approved list of pizza delivery vendors for Fort Dix from a local business operated by his father in nearby New Hanover, but he had a job in a Philadelphia convenience store.

"I think the plotters would have had difficulty in getting past security and pulling off their plan of attack," Saxton said after the tour.

"The military police are well-armed and they mean business. One pizza deliveryman . . . making a delivery is quite different than six or seven terrorists armed with AK-47s."

Five of the men were charged with conspiring to kill military personnel and face life in prison if they are convicted. The sixth is charged with weapons offenses and faces 10 years in prison if he is found guilty. All six men are being held without bail.

Officials at Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base briefed Saxton and Lautenberg about security procedures and troop mobilization at the request of the congressmen. They also toured both bases.

McGuire officials declined to comment. Fort Dix officials also had no comment on the briefing. However, an Army spokeswoman said the post is exploring a new security gate system that would electronically read employee identification cards. Those cards already contain a computer chip and are used for visual identification at the entry gates, but are not read electronically there.

"This is something the Army has been looking at and is already using in various places," Fort Dix spokeswoman Carolee Nisbet said.

New legislation needed


At a news conference before the tour, Lautenberg said he is trying to close what he called a "terror gap" in the federal gun law. He described the gap as "shocking" because it allows suspected terrorists on FBI watch lists to buy guns legally in the United States.

He said his just-introduced bill aims to improve national security by allowing the attorney general to block gun sales to anyone on an FBI watch list of suspected terrorists.

"A suspected terrorist doesn't have to use the black market. They can just go into a gun store and buy a gun," he said.

"Common sense tells us that we shouldn't let known or suspected terrorists buy a gun," he said.

But Lautenberg said in one study, he said, 35 suspected terrorists across the country legally bought guns over a five-month period.

The National Rifle Association opposes his bill.

Saxton and other South Jersey congressmen are planning to introduce a separate measure Wednesday to enhance security and standardize it at all military bases. That proposal would require federal background checks of all civilians or contractors by bases in addition to the current state and local screenings.

Saxton characterized it as a law that is sadly needed. "We have found ourselves moving from a society that never had to worry about these issues before," he said. "There was crime, but never before did we have to face a jihad."

Also on Monday, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Center of South Jersey, a Palmyra mosque where at least four of the suspects sometimes worshipped, announced a town hall meeting for Friday night. Mosque leaders have said they oppose the violence their members were allegedly planning.
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The Associated Press contributed to this story. Carol Comegno: (609) 267-9486 or ccomegnocourierpostonline.com




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