Fort Dix verdict–Fact or fiction?
The jury in the Fort Dix case handed down it’s verdict yesterday, finding the five defendants guilty of conspiracy to kill U. S. soldiers. At the same time, the five were found not guilty of attempted murder in the same case. At the heart of the case is this question. Were the defendants manipulated into getting themselves entangled in this web or did they go along because of their own desire to actually carry out the attack? From Reuters:
The defendants, all born outside the United States, are ethnic Albanian brothers Shain, Dritan and Eljvir Duka who together ran a roofing business in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Serdar Tatar, a convenience store clerk who was born in Turkey; and Mohamad Shnewer, a Jordanian-born taxi driver from Philadelphia. They are aged 23 to 30.
Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra said prosecutors will press for sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing was set for April 22-23.
Dritan and Shain Duka were also found guilty of possessing weapons to be used in the planned attack.
The five defendants smiled as they entered the court but did not react visibly when the verdicts were read. Defense lawyers said they would consider an appeal after sentencing.
The FBI began this probe because a clerk at an electronics store informed them one of the men wanted him to copy a video tape of militants firing guns into the air. Using two informants who were born outside the United States and who had criminal records, the FBI obtained hours of audio and video recordings of the men, while they supposedly planned the attack on Fort Dix. The defendants even went so far as to go to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania to practice firing their weapons and watch propaganda videos of al-Qaida. The defense argued that these were not the only videos they watched, an Eddie Murphy video being in the mix as well. Testimony from a Philadelphia police officer also shows that he was invited to go along on this week long trip, although he declined the offer. It’s hard to imagine they would have wanted him to go along if they were planning some sort of attack.
I honestly have mixed feelings on this verdict. Despite all the recordings the informants made and the evidence they presented to the FBI, I can’t help but wonder if the defendants were really entrapped into joining this conspiracy or if there was a conspiracy at all. I realize the FBI has a strong desire to make sure attacks like this are stopped before they happen, as would any self-respecting law enforcement agency in the United States. That desire is to be commended and appreciated and to be fair, the FBI and our other law enforcement agencies are fighting against all odds to stop such attacks, but the question still remains in my mind. Did they go too far and manipulate these five men into doing something they had no intention of doing in the first place? If that is what happened, then it will not help relations between Muslim-Americans and the rest of our citizens and it will certainly not help in our fight against terrorism, either on our own soil or across the world.
That’s my take!
Larry
