As has been reported since last night six Jihadists have been arrested in New Jersey for planning terrorist attacks against an Army base.
Six men authorities described as radical Islamic terrorists arrested Monday night in Cherry Hill for planning to attack Fort Dix had also looked at Fort Monmouth, a federal building and a U.S. Coast Guard base in Philadelphia, and Dover Air Force base in Delaware.
Fort Dix may have chosen simply because one of the terrorists knew the base from delivering pizzas there.
"He delivered pizza to the base at Fort Dix regularly. He said he knew Fort Dix like the back of his hand. He drew a detailed map of Fort Dix from memory," U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said at a speech Tuesday to the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce here at the Flanders Hotel…
…Christie called the camera shop owner that alerted federal authorities an American hero. The suspected terrorists had gone to the shop about 16 months ago to transfer training videos from video tape to DVD’s.
"The camera store owner saw Muslim men in military garb toting weapons in the woods. He heard them talking about jihad and how Allah was great. He called the FBI and became a hero," Christie said.
The names and Bios of the six are:
NAME: Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer.AGE: 22; Born in Jordan.HOME: Cherry Hill, N.J.OCCUPATION: Drives a cab in Philadelphia.IMMIGRATION STATUS: U.S. citizen.
NAME: Dritan Duka.AGE: 28; Born in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.HOME: Cherry Hill, N.J.IMMIGRATION STATUS: In United States illegally.OCCUPATION: Operates Colonial Roofing and National Roofing, which list business address at the home of his brothers, Eljvir and
Shain Duka.
NAME: Shain Duka.AGE: 26; Born January 1981 in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.LIVES: Cherry Hill, N.J.IMMIGRATION STATUS: In United States illegally.OCCUPATION: Operates roofing businesses with his brothers.
NAME: Eljvir Duka.ALIASES: Elvis Duka, Sulayman.AGE: 23; Born in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.LIVES: Cherry Hill, N.J.IMMIGRATION STATUS: In United States illegally.OCCUPATION: Operates roofing businesses with his brothers.
NAME: Serdar Tatar.AGE: 23; Born in Turkey.HOME: Philadelphia.IMMIGRATION STATUS: Legal U.S. resident.OCCUPATION: Works at a 7-Eleven store in Philadelphia.
NAME: Agron Abdullahu.AGE: 24; Born September 1982 in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.LIVES: Buena Vista Township, N.J.IMMIGRATION STATUS: Legal U.S. resident.OCCUPATION: Works at a Shop-Rite supermarket.James Joyner notes the connection to Muslim Bosnia:
An updated version of the AP story at YahooNews reports that, “four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one in Jordan and one in Turkey. Five of them lived in Cherry Hill, 10 miles east of Philadelphia and 20 miles southwest of Fort Dix.” Given that Muslim Bosnia was part of “the former Yugoslavia,” — and that it would seem unlikely that four Slovenians or Orthodox Serbs would join up with two Muslims — we’re likely dealing with Islamists.And Laura Mansfield notes that the connections to al-Qaeda are slim at the moment, and we should not be surprised:
News media reports describe this morning’s terrorist suspects, who planned an attack on Ft. Dix, NJ, as homegrown with no ties to al Qaeda or any other international terrorist organization.
This isn’t surprising in the least.
It is very likely that this cell, like numerous others that have been uncovered in the past year, falls into the category of "Individual or Small Group Terrorism", as espoused by the Al Qaeda ideologue Abu Mus’ab al Suri in his book "Call to Global Islamic Resistance"..
The doctrine of "Individual or Small Group Terrorism" is a major concept in al Suri’s 1604-page manifesto, published on the internet in December 2004.
Al Suri, who is believed to be currently in US custody, describes three primary phases of Jihad in the book:
Organizations
Open Fronts
Individual/Small Groups
He explains in depth each of these phases, and makes a strong case that the wave of the future is individual and small group terrorists.
He believes that the days of the larger groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, are close to ending, citing the increased effectiveness of security forces in breaking up the groups, as well as the security risks posed in top-down, chain of command structures. A primary concern of Al Suri was that an arrest of anyone in the chain could compromise all those involved. While this cell was arrested before an attack happened, all because of a good citizen observing something suspicious and then calling police, we do not know how many more of these cells are growing. That’s the danger of al-Qaeda 3.0 as Rusty from The Jawa Report calls it. Fanatical Islamists are reading books, watching training videos on the net, and reading material supplied on Jihadist websites and then going out to do the bidding of Bin Laden. Are they taking orders from al-Qaeda, no. Not in the sense that they are receiving direct communication but you cannot discount the fact that the Global Jihad movement is supplying all the information and training needed to start up their own cells….all for one common goal. The destruction of the west.
On another note, as I read the news accounts of this arrest I was struck by this report:
A local marksman remembers the guys with the AK-47s as "bad shots."
Randy Swiden, 59, said he remembers the Russian-speaking men were shooting with 20-round clips rather than the typical three-round clips. They were shooting at 50-yard targets, packs of paper plates and milk jugs, and were missing.
Suspicious activity at a public shooting range in Monroe County led an official from the state game commission to tip authorities on what turned out to be an alleged terror plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey.
"(The men arrested Monday) allegedly used our rifle range in the Gouldsboro area to train in some tactics," said Tim Conway of the game commission in a phone interview today. "We did recognize a few things awhile back and reported that to the appropriate authorities."Why should this one account ring a bell for me? Well in July of 1989 one of our biggest intelligence failures, that being Mr. Ali Mohamed, former Army Sergeant and al-Qaeda member, traveled from Fort Bragg to Long Island to train four men at shooting guns. These four men (Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammed Salameh, El Sayyid Nosair, Nidal Ayyad) were part of the cell that would be responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the Day Of Terror plot to blow up the UN, the FBI headquarters, and tunnels into Manhatten.
