Government rests case in Fort Dix plot trial

[David]

AP


CAMDEN, N.J. – Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday against five men accused of planning to kill American soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix, after 25 days of presenting evidence.

Defense lawyers said they will call only a few witnesses Wednesday, clearing the way for closing arguments to begin early next week. Deliberations could begin as early as Dec. 16.

The defendants are not expected to testify.

The suspects — five foreign-born Muslim men who spent years in the comfortable Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill — face charges including attempted murder and conspiracy to kill military personnel. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison.

No plot was carried out before the men — Mohamad Shnewer, Serdar Tatar and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka — were arrested in May 2007. All were in their 20s at the time.

Lawyers for the men say their clients were not seriously planning anything but were portrayed like a terrorist cell by two paid government witnesses, whose testimony dominated the trial.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler told jurors that they would be sequestered during deliberations — an uncommon step for a federal trial in New Jersey.

Prosecutors have tried to convince jurors that the suspects were working on an attack that could have been one of the most devastating examples of homegrown terrorism in the United States.

On Tuesday, they called terrorism expert Evan Coleman as their final witness. Coleman told jurors that the jihadist — referring to holy war — propaganda videos found on computers belonging to two of the men have been found on the computers of homegrown terrorists around the world, calling them "some of the classics."

Coleman said the fact that the men also tried to buy guns and engaged in what the government calls training bolster the likelihood that they were planning to strike.

He also said that the haphazard way the men seemed to act — goofing off at firing ranges and never meeting to discuss details of an attack — didn't mean they were not going to carry one out.

"It doesn't take a lot of sophistication to kill people," Coleman told jurors. "Ultimately, it comes down to interest. It doesn't take a lot of thought to create chaos."

On cross-examination, Coleman conceded that the presence of the videos did not prove the men were willing to engage in terrorism and acknowledged that there was no evidence that some of the suspects saw all the videos or heard all the jihadist audio recordings.

[revwardoc]

Find them guilty; deport them, but on the way, toss them out over the Atlantic at 10K feet. To be humane about it, hand them an authentic Titanic lifejacket first.

[darrels joy]

1st sentence in Fort Dix case: Life in prison
49-0700>1 hr 19 mins ago
CAMDEN, N.J. – A man convicted of plotting to kill military personnel in the Fort Dix trial will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Thirty-year-old Dritan Duka (DRY'-tahn DOO'-ka) was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. His brothers, Eljvir (EL'-veer) and Shain Duka (DOO'-ka), are also being sentenced Tuesday on conspiracy and weapons charges.

Two other men convicted in the plot are to be sentenced Wednesday.
Dritan Duka told the judge he was innocent.

The five were convicted in December of conspiring to kill military personnel in a plot that authorities portrayed as one of the most frightening homegrown terrorism plans ever in the United States.

The Duka brothers ran a roofing company in Cherry Hill before they were arrested two years ago.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/..._fort_dix_plot

[darrels joy]

Three convicted in Fort Dix terror plot sentenced to life in prison

by Joseph Ryan/The Star-Ledger Tuesday April 28, 2009, 2:15 PM


A federal judge today sentenced three Muslim immigrants from South Jersey to life in prison for plotting to attack Fort Dix, saying radical ideology and hatred for America drove their plot to kill United States soldiers.

The men, brothers from the Balkens, were among five defendants convicted in December of conspiring to target the Burlington County military base in a crime prosecutors said was inspired by al Qaeda and proved homegrown jihadists were plotting inside America.
Shirley Shepard/The Associated PressThis artist's drawing shows defendants Shain Duka, bottom left, Eljvir Duka, Dritan Duka, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer and Serdar Tatar in a federal courtroom in Camden, N.J., on Oct. 20, 2008.

"Nothing has a greater impact on society than the crime of terrorism," U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said before delivering the sentences in a heavily-guarded courtroom in Camden, crowded with government officials, reporters and the men's relatives.

The defendants - Dritan, Eljvir, and Shain Duka - sat quietly during the most of hearing, wearing dark-green prison jumpsuits and thick beards.

Before being sentenced, they each delivered rambling statements -- lasting nearly 25 minutes -- saying the prosecution was riddled with lies.

"Me and my brothers are innocent," Eljvir Duka said.

The Dukas are ethnic Albanians who were born in the former Yugoslavia and have lived illegally in the United States since slipping across the border through Mexico in 1984. They ran a pizzeria and worked as roofers.

Shain and Eljvir attended Cherry Hill High School West.

Dritan and Shain Duka were given an additional 30 years to their life sentences.

Complete coverage of the Fort Dix trial in The Star-Ledger

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/200...dix_defen.html