Fort Dix Convictions-->Muslim Leaders Cry Entrapment

The Fort Dix terrorists were caught because they were trying to make a DVD from a tape about Jihad, one of the plotters was taped by the FBI as saying, "In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad. Today their own pictures and their own words helped to convict them of conspiracy. And as expected Muslim Groups such as CAIR cried entrapment:


Many Muslims skeptical of Fort Dix verdicts WAYNE PARRY

Yes, they talked tough, fired guns and watched jihadist videos.But the five young Muslims convicted Monday of plotting to kill soldiers at Fort Dix may not have been guilty of anything more than youthful braggadocio and poor judgment.That was the verdict rendered by Muslim leaders immediately after the guilty verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Camden.

"It seemed to me as if the case was pretty flimsy," said James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba who was arrested in 2003 and charged with mishandling classified material and other crimes in a suspected espionage ring. Criminal charges were later dropped against him."It seems like these guys under normal circumstances weren't going to do anything until a government informant initiates contact with them and incites them," said Yee."All of this doesn't help build trust with the American Muslim community, and that is vital if our law enforcement is going to fight terrorism," he said. "If anyone can improve security, it's our community, but we need to be seen as trusted partners, not potential suspects.

"Mohamed Younes, president of the Paterson, N.J.-based American Muslin Union, voiced similar sentiments."I don't think they actually mean to do anything," he said. "I think they were acting stupid, like they thought the whole thing was a joke. They don't look like the type of people to do something like this."Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, attended five days of testimony during the trial."Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment," he said. "From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant."

During the eight-week trial, the government relied heavily on information gathered by the informants, who infiltrated the group and secretly recorded hundreds of conversations.Convicted were: Jordanian-born cab driver Mohamad Shnewer; Turkish-born convenience store clerk Serdar Tatar; and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, who had a roofing business .A sixth man arrested and charged only with gun offenses pleaded guilty earlier.

Fuat "Mike" Mamo of Cresskill said the Albanian community in New Jersey is ashamed of the three Albanian brothers who were convicted."I don't know what they were thinking," Mamo said of the Duka brothers. "They were just out of their mind and they should be put away for life. The Albanian community is nothing like this."We come from a country that has a reputation for religious diversity and tolerance.

To go against the American government , that's unacceptable to our community."Sues said the case turned on the legal definition of conspiracy, which he said proved to be far broader than he thought."The evidence showed there was no real, honest-to-God planning for an attack on Fort Dix," he said. "The defendants were never all in a room at one time with a map of the fort, plotting what they were going to do."

These Islamic groups fail to recognize that there would not have been any "informants" if they did not try to develop a CD Video of themselves running through their Jihad Drills. Hell they should probably be arrested for stupidity developing materials like that at a retail store developing shop.

As for CAIR Just once I would like to see them blast the terrorists, instead of the people protecting us from the terrorists, but I guess that would distance them from their Muslim Brotherhood leadership. We would have a better chance of seeing a live Unicorn on our driveways in the morning.