Fort Dix Terror Attack Foiled UPDATED: New Details from News Conference AP
FORT DIX, N.J. (AP) - May 8, 2007 - Five foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack the Army's Fort Dix and massacre scores of U.S. soldiers - a plot investigators say was foiled when the men took a video of themselves firing assault weapons to a store to have the footage put onto a DVD. Also on 6abc: Report a Typo | Discuss This Story | More Local News | Check Traffic Go to Inside Politics| Newslinks and Recalls | 6abc Podcasts| RSS Feeds A sixth suspect was arrested and charged with aiding the other five in illegally obtaining weapons. The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base. Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting them to any international terror organizations such as al-Qaida. But several of the men said they were ready to kill and die "in the name of Allah," according to court records. Their goal was "to kill as many American soldiers as possible" in attacks with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns, prosecutors said. "Today we dodged a bullet. And looking at the weapons they were trying to obtain, we dodged a lot of bullets," said FBI agent J.P. Weiss. Weiss also saluted the store clerk who noticed the suspicious video as the "unsung hero" of the case. "That's why we're here today - because of the courage and heroism of that individual," Weiss said. Investigators said they infiltrated the group with an informant well over a year ago and bided their time while they secretly recorded the defendants, five of whom lived in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb about 20 miles from Fort Dix. "This is what law enforcement is supposed to do in the post-9/11 era - stay one step ahead," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said. The defendants also allegedly spoke of attacking a Navy installation in Philadelphia during the annual Army-Navy football game, when the place would be full of sailors, and conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region. (Copyright 2007 by Action News and the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=5283747 Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
