pbfoot
1st Lieutenant
The Flying Farmer Is Charlie Kulp the man is in his 80's and he brings the cub in a old van... assembles it and simply put he is the best airshow act
Terrorists Target Fort Dix
- Thread starter Njaco
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102first_hussars
Tech Sergeant
The bottom left guy reminds me of Iran's President.
The guy in the top left reminds me of Hugo Chavez, sort of, just imagine him without a moustache
Is that him? 80 years old and flying like that? Only birds fly better. Marginally better.
Never seen anybody fly like that. Litterally, the guy straps that Cub on his back. Guys who perform in competition watch his act and walk away shaking thier heads (don't know if it's in admiration or wonder how he lived this long).
Plenty of great competition pilots out there but this guy is in a class all by himself.
- Thread starter
- #24
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
NJ.com: Everything Jersey
Wash. Twp. authorities twice arrested one suspect
Thursday, May 10, 2007
By Pete McCarthy [email protected]
WASHINGTON TWP. In 2002, township police twice arrested one of the men charged this week with plotting to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix, but let him go despite the fact he was illegally in this country.
Police records show Eljvir Duka, 23, of Cherry Hill, got stopped by township officers on Feb. 8 and May 21, 2002, and taken into custody on outstanding warrants for traffic offenses from the New Jersey State Police.
There is no evidence he ever went to the county jail, which indicates he either posted some form of bail or was released on his own recognizance.
It was unclear Wednesday if he ever returned to court after those dates to answer the charges.
Police Chief Rafael Muniz said his officers are trained to confirm the identity of an individual taken into custody before he or she is released.
Although not familiar with Duka's past run-ins with township police, Muniz said that if a red flag pops up showing an individual might be in the country illegally, federal Immigration and Customer Enforcement officials are immediately notified.
That does not mean, however, that the individual will be picked up, Muniz said.
"If (ICE) or nobody wants them or are not interested in picking them up, we would have to release them," Muniz said. "Usually, what I've found is they only pick up the individuals if they are charged with an indictable crime. We're limited in what we can do. We would have to find out who they are before releasing them."
A spokesman for ICE said it is up to individual police departments to notify the federal authorities. He would not comment any further because of the nature of this particular case.
There was a $750 warrant out of Camden County at one time for Duka, but the reason was unclear other than that it was traffic related, according to information obtained by the Times.
A spokesman for the New Jersey State Police said he could not identify the underlying offense that led to the warrant because the department's records in 2002 were not electronically kept. A manual search would have to be done and that could not be completed on Wednesday.
Washington Township Prosecutor Robert Smith was unable to provide details on this case, including if Duka was ever taken to court.
Speaking generally, Smith said it was possible the man could have been released on his own recognizance if there was no indictable charge present.
"The county jail would probably be full of people and create all kinds of transportation problems if they couldn't post (bail) for a minor traffic offense," Smith said.
Duka, along with brothers Dritan, 28, and Shain, 26, were among five men in Federal Court on Tuesday facing charges they conspired to kill military personnel.
It is alleged they concocted a plan to attack Fort Dix and kill hundreds of soldiers using rocket-propelled grenades and various automatic weapons.
A sixth individual, Agron Abdullahu, 24, of Buena Vista Township, is charged with aiding and abetting their illegal possession of weapons.
The six men charged are all foreign born, but some were in the country legally. The Dukas were not.
All six men are currently being held without bail. They are due back in court Friday for a detention hearing.
If convicted, Duka and four of the others face life in prison. Abdullahu faces a 10-year sentence.
Fort Dix suspect 'normal' to others at local job
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
By Trish G. Graber
[email protected]
Until Tuesday, they appeared to live quiet lives.
Now the six men four with Gloucester County connections are accused of planning a foiled terror plot to kill hundreds of American soldiers at Fort Dix.
Agron Abdullahu, a bakery supervisor at the Williamstown ShopRite, and his family kept to themselves in the Collings Lakes neighborhood of Buena Vista Township.
At work, Abdullahu "jokes around and flirts with the girls," said co-worker Missy Stott, 23.
"He seemed normal to me," the Buena Vista Township resident said of Abdullahu, a Yugoslavia native charged Tuesday with aiding five men who planned to launch a mass murder of military personnel at Fort Dix.
"I would have never thought anything like this," Stott said.
But actions by the family, who never allowed the four children to hang out with neighborhood kids, and sounds coming from the home at all hours of the night, made the police presence at the house Monday night a little less shocking to neighbors.
"Something was going on," said neighbor Patti Eby, who said the family rarely spoke to her, but operated what sounded like power tools in their back yard through many nights.
Of the four children living there, Dana Baker, 24, had talked to Abdullahu's sister a few times, but never really got to know the girl, who she described as a "sweet" girl in her early 20s who used to talk to area kids in secret.
"She wasn't allowed to talk to anyone," Baker said. "Her mom would say we were all bad people."
While Baker questioned the family's rules, she never thought she would be standing outside the home, just hours after state and federal authorities launched a raid in connection with a planned terrorist attack.
The Abdullahus moved to the small Atlantic County community over five years ago. The family spent 212 months at Fort Dix in 1999. The base at the time housed 4,000 Kosovo refugees.
Their brick-front Cape Cod home, with plywood blocking the entrance to the tattered deck on the side of the house, didn't appear out of the ordinary; and just being anti-social did not raise alarm to residents of the working-class neighborhood off the Black Horse Pike.
Looking back, however, there was one particular incident at the home that should have raised red flags.
Last summer, Agron Abdullahu wanted to remove a tree stump in the front yard to make way for a boat.
Neighbors say he placed a stick of dynamite in the stump, rigged it to a lamp with extension cords that he plugged into an electrical socket inside the house. When he flicked the switch, the stump blew out of the ground, neighbors said.
Stott remembers Abdullahu's reaction when she mentioned it on the job.
"I was joking with him and I said, Well, at least I don't blow up tree stumps,' " Stott recalled. "He said, Don't ever say that again.' "
Now he is charged in an alleged plot with five men Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; brothers Eljvir Duka, 23; Dritan Duka, 28; and Shain Duka, 26, all of Cherry Hill; and Serdar Tatar, 23, of Philadelphia.
Three of them are linked to Gloucester County.
The Duka brothers once owned a pizzeria in Washington Township.
"It was a rat trap," said Tony Giordano, who purchased the Shoppers Lane restaurant in June 2005, and renamed the former Duka's Pizzeria as Tony Soprano's. "Everything was beaten up. It was dirty."
Giordano suggested he was still interested in buying it, as it "had some potential."
"It's easier to open a pizzeria when you have an existing one," he suggested. He noted he remodeled the premises before reopening the facility.
Giordano said he "dealt" with brothers Dritan and Shain Duka for "a week, 10 days" before deciding to buy the pizzeria. A third brother, Eljvir, was on the premises on an occasional basis during the time, Giordano said.
What did he remember of the brothers?
"They had the Koran out on the counter all the time," Giordano replied. "They were ignorant to women. They did not seem business-oriented."
The Dukas operated the business for several years before selling it to someone "who could not meet the note," Giordano said.
"They took it back and put it up for sale almost immediately."
That's when Giordano became interested.
The men he negotiated a business deal with are now facing up to life in prison.
Shnewer, a cab driver in Philadelphia, and Tatar, a 7-Eleven worker in Philadelphia, face up to life as well.
Abdullahu, the apparent weapons trainer of the group, faces up to 10 years in prison, authorities said.
Carol Mitros, of Buena Vista Township, said while it is "scary" to have lived so close a significant part of the group for at least five years, she said people have to continue carrying out their daily routines.
"Where are you going to run to?" she said. "They're right next door."
Staff writer John Barna and Newhouse News Service contributed to this report.
Wash. Twp. authorities twice arrested one suspect
Thursday, May 10, 2007
By Pete McCarthy [email protected]
WASHINGTON TWP. In 2002, township police twice arrested one of the men charged this week with plotting to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix, but let him go despite the fact he was illegally in this country.
Police records show Eljvir Duka, 23, of Cherry Hill, got stopped by township officers on Feb. 8 and May 21, 2002, and taken into custody on outstanding warrants for traffic offenses from the New Jersey State Police.
There is no evidence he ever went to the county jail, which indicates he either posted some form of bail or was released on his own recognizance.
It was unclear Wednesday if he ever returned to court after those dates to answer the charges.
Police Chief Rafael Muniz said his officers are trained to confirm the identity of an individual taken into custody before he or she is released.
Although not familiar with Duka's past run-ins with township police, Muniz said that if a red flag pops up showing an individual might be in the country illegally, federal Immigration and Customer Enforcement officials are immediately notified.
That does not mean, however, that the individual will be picked up, Muniz said.
"If (ICE) or nobody wants them or are not interested in picking them up, we would have to release them," Muniz said. "Usually, what I've found is they only pick up the individuals if they are charged with an indictable crime. We're limited in what we can do. We would have to find out who they are before releasing them."
A spokesman for ICE said it is up to individual police departments to notify the federal authorities. He would not comment any further because of the nature of this particular case.
There was a $750 warrant out of Camden County at one time for Duka, but the reason was unclear other than that it was traffic related, according to information obtained by the Times.
A spokesman for the New Jersey State Police said he could not identify the underlying offense that led to the warrant because the department's records in 2002 were not electronically kept. A manual search would have to be done and that could not be completed on Wednesday.
Washington Township Prosecutor Robert Smith was unable to provide details on this case, including if Duka was ever taken to court.
Speaking generally, Smith said it was possible the man could have been released on his own recognizance if there was no indictable charge present.
"The county jail would probably be full of people and create all kinds of transportation problems if they couldn't post (bail) for a minor traffic offense," Smith said.
Duka, along with brothers Dritan, 28, and Shain, 26, were among five men in Federal Court on Tuesday facing charges they conspired to kill military personnel.
It is alleged they concocted a plan to attack Fort Dix and kill hundreds of soldiers using rocket-propelled grenades and various automatic weapons.
A sixth individual, Agron Abdullahu, 24, of Buena Vista Township, is charged with aiding and abetting their illegal possession of weapons.
The six men charged are all foreign born, but some were in the country legally. The Dukas were not.
All six men are currently being held without bail. They are due back in court Friday for a detention hearing.
If convicted, Duka and four of the others face life in prison. Abdullahu faces a 10-year sentence.
Fort Dix suspect 'normal' to others at local job
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
By Trish G. Graber
[email protected]
Until Tuesday, they appeared to live quiet lives.
Now the six men four with Gloucester County connections are accused of planning a foiled terror plot to kill hundreds of American soldiers at Fort Dix.
Agron Abdullahu, a bakery supervisor at the Williamstown ShopRite, and his family kept to themselves in the Collings Lakes neighborhood of Buena Vista Township.
At work, Abdullahu "jokes around and flirts with the girls," said co-worker Missy Stott, 23.
"He seemed normal to me," the Buena Vista Township resident said of Abdullahu, a Yugoslavia native charged Tuesday with aiding five men who planned to launch a mass murder of military personnel at Fort Dix.
"I would have never thought anything like this," Stott said.
But actions by the family, who never allowed the four children to hang out with neighborhood kids, and sounds coming from the home at all hours of the night, made the police presence at the house Monday night a little less shocking to neighbors.
"Something was going on," said neighbor Patti Eby, who said the family rarely spoke to her, but operated what sounded like power tools in their back yard through many nights.
Of the four children living there, Dana Baker, 24, had talked to Abdullahu's sister a few times, but never really got to know the girl, who she described as a "sweet" girl in her early 20s who used to talk to area kids in secret.
"She wasn't allowed to talk to anyone," Baker said. "Her mom would say we were all bad people."
While Baker questioned the family's rules, she never thought she would be standing outside the home, just hours after state and federal authorities launched a raid in connection with a planned terrorist attack.
The Abdullahus moved to the small Atlantic County community over five years ago. The family spent 212 months at Fort Dix in 1999. The base at the time housed 4,000 Kosovo refugees.
Their brick-front Cape Cod home, with plywood blocking the entrance to the tattered deck on the side of the house, didn't appear out of the ordinary; and just being anti-social did not raise alarm to residents of the working-class neighborhood off the Black Horse Pike.
Looking back, however, there was one particular incident at the home that should have raised red flags.
Last summer, Agron Abdullahu wanted to remove a tree stump in the front yard to make way for a boat.
Neighbors say he placed a stick of dynamite in the stump, rigged it to a lamp with extension cords that he plugged into an electrical socket inside the house. When he flicked the switch, the stump blew out of the ground, neighbors said.
Stott remembers Abdullahu's reaction when she mentioned it on the job.
"I was joking with him and I said, Well, at least I don't blow up tree stumps,' " Stott recalled. "He said, Don't ever say that again.' "
Now he is charged in an alleged plot with five men Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; brothers Eljvir Duka, 23; Dritan Duka, 28; and Shain Duka, 26, all of Cherry Hill; and Serdar Tatar, 23, of Philadelphia.
Three of them are linked to Gloucester County.
The Duka brothers once owned a pizzeria in Washington Township.
"It was a rat trap," said Tony Giordano, who purchased the Shoppers Lane restaurant in June 2005, and renamed the former Duka's Pizzeria as Tony Soprano's. "Everything was beaten up. It was dirty."
Giordano suggested he was still interested in buying it, as it "had some potential."
"It's easier to open a pizzeria when you have an existing one," he suggested. He noted he remodeled the premises before reopening the facility.
Giordano said he "dealt" with brothers Dritan and Shain Duka for "a week, 10 days" before deciding to buy the pizzeria. A third brother, Eljvir, was on the premises on an occasional basis during the time, Giordano said.
What did he remember of the brothers?
"They had the Koran out on the counter all the time," Giordano replied. "They were ignorant to women. They did not seem business-oriented."
The Dukas operated the business for several years before selling it to someone "who could not meet the note," Giordano said.
"They took it back and put it up for sale almost immediately."
That's when Giordano became interested.
The men he negotiated a business deal with are now facing up to life in prison.
Shnewer, a cab driver in Philadelphia, and Tatar, a 7-Eleven worker in Philadelphia, face up to life as well.
Abdullahu, the apparent weapons trainer of the group, faces up to 10 years in prison, authorities said.
Carol Mitros, of Buena Vista Township, said while it is "scary" to have lived so close a significant part of the group for at least five years, she said people have to continue carrying out their daily routines.
"Where are you going to run to?" she said. "They're right next door."
Staff writer John Barna and Newhouse News Service contributed to this report.
lesofprimus
Brigadier General
WTF is this country coming to??? Im sick of this incompetent "Its not my problem" attitude... Something has got to be done about this crap....
- Thread starter
- #26
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
And this crap is no more than five miles from me. I know the cops in Wash Twp. and they would do the best they can but the feds said no. Its crazy! They ask everybody on every level to help and this is what happens?
mkloby
Senior Master Sergeant
You and me both.... I fear that particular problem is all tied up w/ politics...
I read something just a few minutes ago that they (not sure who "they" are but it's not they I favor) are studying the informant's actions for "entrapment".
Guys are planning on murdering people in cold blood and we're worried about entrapment? WTF!
Guys are planning on murdering people in cold blood and we're worried about entrapment? WTF!
Matt308
Glock Perfection
Wait for it. They'll be rich from some ACLU legal wrangle before this is done. God help us if the Demos get the presidency. Not that friggin' Bush and his cronies have done much. 
mkloby
Senior Master Sergeant
Wait for it. They'll be rich from some ACLU legal wrangle before this is done. God help us if the Demos get the presidency. Not that friggin' Bush and his cronies have done much.
The Democratic Party is the most dangerous threat to American culture right now. I love how they always preface their statements with "I'm a patriot." It's like a guilty conscience. You don't need to explain your patriotism to people - your actions tell all that is needed.
Matt308
Glock Perfection
Well said.
"I support the troops, but..."
"I am a 2nd Amendment supporter, but..."
"I recognize that radical Islam wants to kill our children, but..."
"I concur that American education is subpar, but..."
"I believe in free speech, but..."
"We should minimize gov't spending, but..."
"We cannot tax ourselves into prosperity, but..."
"We have an illegal alien problem, but..."
yaddah, yaddah, yaddah...
"I support the troops, but..."
"I am a 2nd Amendment supporter, but..."
"I recognize that radical Islam wants to kill our children, but..."
"I concur that American education is subpar, but..."
"I believe in free speech, but..."
"We should minimize gov't spending, but..."
"We cannot tax ourselves into prosperity, but..."
"We have an illegal alien problem, but..."
yaddah, yaddah, yaddah...
Erich
the old Sage
so Matt what I hear you saying is ............ ?
time for vigelante's ? no mercy !
time for vigelante's ? no mercy !
- Thread starter
- #33
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
The Democratic party is a racist, communist organization.
It comes down to a question of how you want to be judged; by who you are or by what you are.
Who you are is conservative.
What you are is liberal.
Democrats want to segragate the population by race, sex, sexual preference, etc...
unless you're a white male.
And the rich Republican crap is gettin old. Especially from the mouths of Ted Kennedy, Jon Corzine, and others. Never knew a poor day in their life. And its because of this idealology of "everybody is equal" that they'll allow any nutcase to this country so they can "help" them. I feel like Nero lookin for his fiddle.
It comes down to a question of how you want to be judged; by who you are or by what you are.
Who you are is conservative.
What you are is liberal.
Democrats want to segragate the population by race, sex, sexual preference, etc...
unless you're a white male.
And the rich Republican crap is gettin old. Especially from the mouths of Ted Kennedy, Jon Corzine, and others. Never knew a poor day in their life. And its because of this idealology of "everybody is equal" that they'll allow any nutcase to this country so they can "help" them. I feel like Nero lookin for his fiddle.
lesofprimus
Brigadier General
I fu*kin hate politics...
Ditto.
- Thread starter
- #36
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
some more garbage from the media...entrapment.
Informants scrutinized in Fort Dix case - Yahoo! News
Informants scrutinized in Fort Dix case
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 10, 6:20 PM ET
CHERRY HILL, N.J. - He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer, and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
These were not the actions of a terrorist, but of a paid FBI informant who helped bring down an alleged plot by six Muslim men to massacre U.S. soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.
And those actions have raised questions of whether the government crossed the line and pushed the six men down a path they would not have otherwise followed.
It is an argument — entrapment — that has been made in other terrorism cases, and one that has failed miserably in this post-Sept. 11 era.
One defense attorney on the case, Troy Archie, said no decision has been made on whether to argue entrapment, but based on the FBI's own account, "the guys sort of led them on."
Rocco Cipparone, a lawyer for another one of the defendants, said he will take a hard look at "the role of paid informants and how aggressive they were in potentially prodding or moving things along."
The Fort Dix Six were arrested earlier this week 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."
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie defended the government's handling of the case. He and the FBI portrayed the defendants as Muslim fanatics who were nearly ready to strike. They were arrested Monday night during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons.
Former FBI agent Kevin Barrows said prosecutors appeared to have done things right.
"They corroborated with surveillance, and they had a gun buy set up," Barrows said. "That further solidified the case, as opposed to it just being a tape of somebody saying, `Yeah, I want to buy guns.' They worked this for a long time and the evidence seems really, really solid."
Prosecutors portrayed the six men — Serdar Tatar, 23; Agron Abdullahu, 24; Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 — as driven by hatred of America, a description disputed by relatives and acquaintances.
"I never in my wildest dreams imagined what they've been accused of," said Ismail Badat, trustee of the Islamic Center of South Jersey in Palmyra, where the Duka brothers worshipped.
The same documents that prosecutors used to build a case against the suspects also depict them as somewhat disorganized, lackluster plotters. And clumsy and amateurish, too: The FBI learned of the alleged plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD. Also, they mistakenly thought an AK-47 costs $500, instead of $1,500 to $3,000.
Also, one of the men, Tatar, called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying that he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix, and that he feared the incident was terrorist-related, according to court documents.
"It could be a defense, that he felt he was being pressured to do things and actually called law enforcement to report it," Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer and Muslim community leader in New Jersey who is not involved in the case.
Entrapment occurs when law enforcement officials entice others into committing a crime they otherwise would not have committed. Under the law, people cannot be convicted if they were entrapped. But there is no entrapment if a person is willing to break the law and law officers offer to help.
"If the source talks them into committing a crime, that is entrapment," said retired FBI agent Craig Dotlo, a 32-year veteran. But "if they are predisposed to commit a crime, and you give them the opportunity, that's fine."
Among other things, even before the informant presented the list of weapons he said he could get, Dritan Duka unwittingly asked an undercover federal agent he had seen at a firing range about where he might buy an AK-47 or M-16, according to the FBI.
Archie, the defense attorney, conceded it is difficult to win an entrapment defense. "Basically, if they are just constantly pushing someone to go in a particular direction," he said. "It's just got to be obvious, obvious entrapment for it to fly."
Attorney Henry Klingeman unsuccessfully argued that government agents had entrapped London merchant Hemant Lakhani, convicted in New Jersey in 2005. Lakhani was caught in a sting trying to arrange the sale of at least 50 shoulder-fired missiles for shooting down American airliners. He is serving a 47-year prison sentence.
"In the post-9/11 era, the entrapment defense is basically useless," Klingeman said. "For a defendant, merely saying he wishes he could do harm to America, the jury has heard enough."
Entrapment also failed as a defense in the case of Shahwar Matin Siraj, who was convicted in New York City of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station in 2003. Authorities had recruited an Egyptian man as an informant.
Siraj's lawyer, Martin R. Stolar, argued at trial that Siraj had no interest in violence until the informant showed him photos of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib and told him it was his duty as a Muslim to retaliate. Siraj was found guiity and sentenced to 30 years.
"The government often overreaches in its zeal to give itself a pat on the back," Stolar said. "In my case, my position was that they created the crime in order to solve the crime so that they could then claim a victory in the war on terror."
Vincent Henry, director of the Homeland Security Management Institute at Long Island University and a 21-year veteran of the New York Police Department, said he is convinced that the Fort Dix defendants really were capable of pulling off such an attack.
"I'm sure they were," he said. "The arrests were made as they were on their way to purchase the weapons, or at least some of the weapons. They had seemed to plan it out very, very well."
Informants scrutinized in Fort Dix case - Yahoo! News
Informants scrutinized in Fort Dix case
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 10, 6:20 PM ET
CHERRY HILL, N.J. - He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer, and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
These were not the actions of a terrorist, but of a paid FBI informant who helped bring down an alleged plot by six Muslim men to massacre U.S. soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.
And those actions have raised questions of whether the government crossed the line and pushed the six men down a path they would not have otherwise followed.
It is an argument — entrapment — that has been made in other terrorism cases, and one that has failed miserably in this post-Sept. 11 era.
One defense attorney on the case, Troy Archie, said no decision has been made on whether to argue entrapment, but based on the FBI's own account, "the guys sort of led them on."
Rocco Cipparone, a lawyer for another one of the defendants, said he will take a hard look at "the role of paid informants and how aggressive they were in potentially prodding or moving things along."
The Fort Dix Six were arrested earlier this week 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."
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie defended the government's handling of the case. He and the FBI portrayed the defendants as Muslim fanatics who were nearly ready to strike. They were arrested Monday night during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons.
Former FBI agent Kevin Barrows said prosecutors appeared to have done things right.
"They corroborated with surveillance, and they had a gun buy set up," Barrows said. "That further solidified the case, as opposed to it just being a tape of somebody saying, `Yeah, I want to buy guns.' They worked this for a long time and the evidence seems really, really solid."
Prosecutors portrayed the six men — Serdar Tatar, 23; Agron Abdullahu, 24; Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 — as driven by hatred of America, a description disputed by relatives and acquaintances.
"I never in my wildest dreams imagined what they've been accused of," said Ismail Badat, trustee of the Islamic Center of South Jersey in Palmyra, where the Duka brothers worshipped.
The same documents that prosecutors used to build a case against the suspects also depict them as somewhat disorganized, lackluster plotters. And clumsy and amateurish, too: The FBI learned of the alleged plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD. Also, they mistakenly thought an AK-47 costs $500, instead of $1,500 to $3,000.
Also, one of the men, Tatar, called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying that he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix, and that he feared the incident was terrorist-related, according to court documents.
"It could be a defense, that he felt he was being pressured to do things and actually called law enforcement to report it," Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer and Muslim community leader in New Jersey who is not involved in the case.
Entrapment occurs when law enforcement officials entice others into committing a crime they otherwise would not have committed. Under the law, people cannot be convicted if they were entrapped. But there is no entrapment if a person is willing to break the law and law officers offer to help.
"If the source talks them into committing a crime, that is entrapment," said retired FBI agent Craig Dotlo, a 32-year veteran. But "if they are predisposed to commit a crime, and you give them the opportunity, that's fine."
Among other things, even before the informant presented the list of weapons he said he could get, Dritan Duka unwittingly asked an undercover federal agent he had seen at a firing range about where he might buy an AK-47 or M-16, according to the FBI.
Archie, the defense attorney, conceded it is difficult to win an entrapment defense. "Basically, if they are just constantly pushing someone to go in a particular direction," he said. "It's just got to be obvious, obvious entrapment for it to fly."
Attorney Henry Klingeman unsuccessfully argued that government agents had entrapped London merchant Hemant Lakhani, convicted in New Jersey in 2005. Lakhani was caught in a sting trying to arrange the sale of at least 50 shoulder-fired missiles for shooting down American airliners. He is serving a 47-year prison sentence.
"In the post-9/11 era, the entrapment defense is basically useless," Klingeman said. "For a defendant, merely saying he wishes he could do harm to America, the jury has heard enough."
Entrapment also failed as a defense in the case of Shahwar Matin Siraj, who was convicted in New York City of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station in 2003. Authorities had recruited an Egyptian man as an informant.
Siraj's lawyer, Martin R. Stolar, argued at trial that Siraj had no interest in violence until the informant showed him photos of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib and told him it was his duty as a Muslim to retaliate. Siraj was found guiity and sentenced to 30 years.
"The government often overreaches in its zeal to give itself a pat on the back," Stolar said. "In my case, my position was that they created the crime in order to solve the crime so that they could then claim a victory in the war on terror."
Vincent Henry, director of the Homeland Security Management Institute at Long Island University and a 21-year veteran of the New York Police Department, said he is convinced that the Fort Dix defendants really were capable of pulling off such an attack.
"I'm sure they were," he said. "The arrests were made as they were on their way to purchase the weapons, or at least some of the weapons. They had seemed to plan it out very, very well."
lesofprimus
Brigadier General
Entrapment my ass, its not like they were busted trying to pick up Mary Rottencrotch at the corner of Wilkshire and LeMoyne for Christsakes....
evangilder
"Shooter"
No sh!t, Dan. What the hell are we becoming?? These guys were terrorists, plain and simple. I hate the media as much as politicians.
Matt308
Glock Perfection
More
- Thread starter
- #40
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
I'm sorry if I keep posting these news articles but this cr*p is exactly whats wrong with many things in this country. Illegal immigrants with rights, radical religions with rights and us commoners under threat. And its in my backyard. Just too close to home.
NJ.com: Everything Jersey
Jihad in Suburbia: What sparked a change in Fort Dix terror suspects?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
By Mark Mueller
and Ted Sherman Newhouse News Service
By most accounts, they were typical teenagers, focused on music and friends. They played soccer on the lawn and smiled easily. In their multicultural communities, the foreign-born youths blended in.
But in the years between adolescence and adulthood, something changed. They paid little attention to their studies. They hardened. They came to find pleasure and purpose in the extremist philosophy of jihad, authorities say.
Federal prosecutors say the six men arrested Monday in a plot to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., represent a new and frightening breed of zealot: the terrorist next door.
Friends and family members offer contrasting portraits of the men. Committed to family. Hardworking. In some cases, affable.
Dozens of interviews conducted in recent days reveal a mixed picture of the defendants, shedding new light on their years in New Jersey and, in some cases, on their ideological transformation.
One law enforcement official said that transformation had already been completed when the FBI was alerted to the group 15 months ago.
"Something happened from the time these guys were in high school until now," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"How they congealed, how they formed this tight-knit group is unknown," the official said. "By the time we got to them, they were already radicalized."
MOHAMAD SHNEWER
He is the public face of the plot, the man whom authorities have characterized as the most committed to causing "carnage."
Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, a 22-year-old cab driver in Philadelphia, showed his friends the last will and testament of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers and smiled when watching Internet videos depicting the deaths of American soldiers, prosecutors say.
"My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," he allegedly told an FBI informant.
Those words came as a shock to many who know Shnewer, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Jordan two decades ago. Shnewer's family settled in Cherry Hill and opened a small grocery store in nearby Pennsauken.
Short and stocky, Shnewer graduated from Cherry Hill High School West, a multicultural school of some 1,500 students, and went on to Camden County College. But he never completed his studies, instead taking a job at the family store.
By the time he began driving a cab three months ago, he already was deep into the plot's final preparations, authorities say.
Friends and family members say the federal government's claims simply don't square with the man they know.
"He's honest. He's smart. He never fought with anybody," said his mother, Faten Shnewer.
An uncle in Pennsauken said Shnewer "can't even kill a chicken," let alone U.S. soldiers, and contended the government had elevated "babbling" among Shnewer and his friends into an exaggerated criminal case.
The oldest of six children, Shnewer sometimes worshipped with his father, who shares the same name, at Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia.
He also worked with his father at All-City Taxi, a South Philadelphia dispatch service. Co-workers recalled the son as hardworking and friendly.
While the elder Shnewer was known to pray in the office, neither he nor his son showed any sign of zealotry, employees said.
"We had no problem with them," owner Maria Perri said.
THE BROTHERS DUKA
Ferid Beroulli remembers them as "smiling faces."
Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka would occasionally worship with their father at the Albania Islamic Cultural Center on Staten Island, where Beroulli is a long-serving imam.
The Dukas, natives of Macedonia who had entered the United States illegally through Mexico in 1984, lived in Brooklyn at the time. Later, they moved to Cherry Hill.
Ferik Duka, the children's father and a roofer by trade, was "a hard worker," Beroulli said. The three boys, now in their 20s, did not stand out, the imam said. "Just young kids."
There are no records that Dritan friendly, outgoing, always ready to tell jokes ever went to school in New Jersey. But the two others Shain and Eljvir, commonly known as Elvis attended Cherry Hill High School West before dropping out and following their father into the roofing business.
It was about seven years ago when the Duka brothers began to change, said a cousin, Ramiz Duka, also of Cherry Hill. They grew their beards long and began to argue with him about religion.
A practicing Muslim, Ramiz Duka said his cousins criticized him for listening to the Albanian music he loves, dressing in Americanized clothes and not praying properly.
"They started changing in their attitudes," he said. "I thought something was wrong with them. I didn't want my kids to learn what they were learning, what they were saying, what they were thinking. About some kind of a tradition of Islam that has nothing to do with Islam. I had arguments about what I believe and what they believe."
Ramiz Duka said he was so troubled he stopped visiting.
SERDAR TATAR
It was the quintessential immigrant success story.
Muslim Tatar legally brought his family to the United States from Turkey in 1992, and with hard work established a home in Cherry Hill and a business, a pizzeria named Super Mario's, practically in the shadow of Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base.
With their lunches and dinners, soldiers and airmen put cash in the family's pockets.
Today, authorities say, the father's son, Serdar, is charged with plotting to kill "as many soldiers as possible."
The younger Tatar, 23, had once worked at the pizzeria and made deliveries to Fort Dix. He knew the layout well and planned to use the restaurant as a launching point for the attack, authorities said.
But the portrait of Tatar presented in court filings is a complex one, by turns depicting him as eager to kill and hesitant to go along with the others in the case.
Married to a Russian-born woman now pregnant with twins, Tatar went to Philadelphia police in November of last year, telling them he was being pressured to steal a map of Fort Dix in what could be a terrorist plot, according to the criminal complaint.
The information made its way to the FBI, and agents questioned Tatar. He apparently had a change of heart: According to the complaint, Tatar denied a plot was in place.
Authorities say he subsequently stole a map of Fort Dix from the pizzeria.
Later still, in a recorded conversation, Tatar allegedly pledged himself to the plan "in the name of Allah."
Tatar's father denied his son planned to harm anyone.
"He is not a terrorist," Muslim Tatar said. "I am not a terrorist."
Like four of his co-defendants, Tatar attended Cherry Hill High School West; he dropped out after his junior year. Most recently, Tatar lived in Philadelphia and worked as a clerk at a 7-Eleven near Temple University.
In the years since high school, Tatar maintained another link with some of his co-defendants, worshipping with them at the South Jersey Islamic Center in Palmyra. Authorities have characterized Tatar as a radical.
His lawyer, Richard Sparaco, questions that view, saying he plans to highlight Tatar's visit to police late last year.
"This raises serious questions" about Tatar's guilt, Sparaco said. "Why would someone involved in a terrorism plot go to the police and tell them to contact the FBI?"
AGRON ABDULLAHU
Agron Abdullahu said he felt as if he'd been "reborn."
It was December 1999, and Abdullahu, a 17-year-old ethnic Albanian, had been living in the United States since the spring, resettled from his war-riven homeland in Yugoslavia. With his parents and three younger siblings, he landed at Fort Dix with more than 4,000 other Kosovars.
The Abdullahus spent several months at the base before finding a home in Williamstown. That's where a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter interviewed the family about the progress of the resettlement. Agron Abdullahu said he loved his adopted country.
"People are friendly and help me with anything," the teen was quoted as saying in the Dec. 7, 1999, story. Living in the United States, he said, is "like I am reborn here for a second time."
Abdullahu, now 24 and living in Atlantic County, had been employed as a baker in a supermarket when the FBI arrested him Monday and charged him with aiding and abetting the plot. Authorities say he provided three of the defendants with weapons.
The law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Abdullahu has known the co-defendants for years but did not appear to share the their extreme views.
Short and slight, with a crew cut and a closely cropped beard, Abdullahu was described by co-workers as thoroughly Americanized, a rap music fan prone to jokes and hearty laughter.
But there were hints of a darker side.
Bob Watts, who worked in the supermarket's bakery with him, said Abdullahu referred to Osama bin Laden as "Uncle Benny" and once showed him recipes for homemade bombs.
.....and the ACLU and Democrats will support this over and over and over.
NJ.com: Everything Jersey
Jihad in Suburbia: What sparked a change in Fort Dix terror suspects?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
By Mark Mueller
and Ted Sherman Newhouse News Service
By most accounts, they were typical teenagers, focused on music and friends. They played soccer on the lawn and smiled easily. In their multicultural communities, the foreign-born youths blended in.
But in the years between adolescence and adulthood, something changed. They paid little attention to their studies. They hardened. They came to find pleasure and purpose in the extremist philosophy of jihad, authorities say.
Federal prosecutors say the six men arrested Monday in a plot to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., represent a new and frightening breed of zealot: the terrorist next door.
Friends and family members offer contrasting portraits of the men. Committed to family. Hardworking. In some cases, affable.
Dozens of interviews conducted in recent days reveal a mixed picture of the defendants, shedding new light on their years in New Jersey and, in some cases, on their ideological transformation.
One law enforcement official said that transformation had already been completed when the FBI was alerted to the group 15 months ago.
"Something happened from the time these guys were in high school until now," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"How they congealed, how they formed this tight-knit group is unknown," the official said. "By the time we got to them, they were already radicalized."
MOHAMAD SHNEWER
He is the public face of the plot, the man whom authorities have characterized as the most committed to causing "carnage."
Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, a 22-year-old cab driver in Philadelphia, showed his friends the last will and testament of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers and smiled when watching Internet videos depicting the deaths of American soldiers, prosecutors say.
"My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," he allegedly told an FBI informant.
Those words came as a shock to many who know Shnewer, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Jordan two decades ago. Shnewer's family settled in Cherry Hill and opened a small grocery store in nearby Pennsauken.
Short and stocky, Shnewer graduated from Cherry Hill High School West, a multicultural school of some 1,500 students, and went on to Camden County College. But he never completed his studies, instead taking a job at the family store.
By the time he began driving a cab three months ago, he already was deep into the plot's final preparations, authorities say.
Friends and family members say the federal government's claims simply don't square with the man they know.
"He's honest. He's smart. He never fought with anybody," said his mother, Faten Shnewer.
An uncle in Pennsauken said Shnewer "can't even kill a chicken," let alone U.S. soldiers, and contended the government had elevated "babbling" among Shnewer and his friends into an exaggerated criminal case.
The oldest of six children, Shnewer sometimes worshipped with his father, who shares the same name, at Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia.
He also worked with his father at All-City Taxi, a South Philadelphia dispatch service. Co-workers recalled the son as hardworking and friendly.
While the elder Shnewer was known to pray in the office, neither he nor his son showed any sign of zealotry, employees said.
"We had no problem with them," owner Maria Perri said.
THE BROTHERS DUKA
Ferid Beroulli remembers them as "smiling faces."
Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka would occasionally worship with their father at the Albania Islamic Cultural Center on Staten Island, where Beroulli is a long-serving imam.
The Dukas, natives of Macedonia who had entered the United States illegally through Mexico in 1984, lived in Brooklyn at the time. Later, they moved to Cherry Hill.
Ferik Duka, the children's father and a roofer by trade, was "a hard worker," Beroulli said. The three boys, now in their 20s, did not stand out, the imam said. "Just young kids."
There are no records that Dritan friendly, outgoing, always ready to tell jokes ever went to school in New Jersey. But the two others Shain and Eljvir, commonly known as Elvis attended Cherry Hill High School West before dropping out and following their father into the roofing business.
It was about seven years ago when the Duka brothers began to change, said a cousin, Ramiz Duka, also of Cherry Hill. They grew their beards long and began to argue with him about religion.
A practicing Muslim, Ramiz Duka said his cousins criticized him for listening to the Albanian music he loves, dressing in Americanized clothes and not praying properly.
"They started changing in their attitudes," he said. "I thought something was wrong with them. I didn't want my kids to learn what they were learning, what they were saying, what they were thinking. About some kind of a tradition of Islam that has nothing to do with Islam. I had arguments about what I believe and what they believe."
Ramiz Duka said he was so troubled he stopped visiting.
SERDAR TATAR
It was the quintessential immigrant success story.
Muslim Tatar legally brought his family to the United States from Turkey in 1992, and with hard work established a home in Cherry Hill and a business, a pizzeria named Super Mario's, practically in the shadow of Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base.
With their lunches and dinners, soldiers and airmen put cash in the family's pockets.
Today, authorities say, the father's son, Serdar, is charged with plotting to kill "as many soldiers as possible."
The younger Tatar, 23, had once worked at the pizzeria and made deliveries to Fort Dix. He knew the layout well and planned to use the restaurant as a launching point for the attack, authorities said.
But the portrait of Tatar presented in court filings is a complex one, by turns depicting him as eager to kill and hesitant to go along with the others in the case.
Married to a Russian-born woman now pregnant with twins, Tatar went to Philadelphia police in November of last year, telling them he was being pressured to steal a map of Fort Dix in what could be a terrorist plot, according to the criminal complaint.
The information made its way to the FBI, and agents questioned Tatar. He apparently had a change of heart: According to the complaint, Tatar denied a plot was in place.
Authorities say he subsequently stole a map of Fort Dix from the pizzeria.
Later still, in a recorded conversation, Tatar allegedly pledged himself to the plan "in the name of Allah."
Tatar's father denied his son planned to harm anyone.
"He is not a terrorist," Muslim Tatar said. "I am not a terrorist."
Like four of his co-defendants, Tatar attended Cherry Hill High School West; he dropped out after his junior year. Most recently, Tatar lived in Philadelphia and worked as a clerk at a 7-Eleven near Temple University.
In the years since high school, Tatar maintained another link with some of his co-defendants, worshipping with them at the South Jersey Islamic Center in Palmyra. Authorities have characterized Tatar as a radical.
His lawyer, Richard Sparaco, questions that view, saying he plans to highlight Tatar's visit to police late last year.
"This raises serious questions" about Tatar's guilt, Sparaco said. "Why would someone involved in a terrorism plot go to the police and tell them to contact the FBI?"
AGRON ABDULLAHU
Agron Abdullahu said he felt as if he'd been "reborn."
It was December 1999, and Abdullahu, a 17-year-old ethnic Albanian, had been living in the United States since the spring, resettled from his war-riven homeland in Yugoslavia. With his parents and three younger siblings, he landed at Fort Dix with more than 4,000 other Kosovars.
The Abdullahus spent several months at the base before finding a home in Williamstown. That's where a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter interviewed the family about the progress of the resettlement. Agron Abdullahu said he loved his adopted country.
"People are friendly and help me with anything," the teen was quoted as saying in the Dec. 7, 1999, story. Living in the United States, he said, is "like I am reborn here for a second time."
Abdullahu, now 24 and living in Atlantic County, had been employed as a baker in a supermarket when the FBI arrested him Monday and charged him with aiding and abetting the plot. Authorities say he provided three of the defendants with weapons.
The law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Abdullahu has known the co-defendants for years but did not appear to share the their extreme views.
Short and slight, with a crew cut and a closely cropped beard, Abdullahu was described by co-workers as thoroughly Americanized, a rap music fan prone to jokes and hearty laughter.
But there were hints of a darker side.
Bob Watts, who worked in the supermarket's bakery with him, said Abdullahu referred to Osama bin Laden as "Uncle Benny" and once showed him recipes for homemade bombs.
.....and the ACLU and Democrats will support this over and over and over.
