the rix mix

Five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey were convicted today of plotting to kill American soldiers, a crime that prosecutors said demonstrated how Al Qaeda was using the Internet to recruit, train and incite supporters for attacks in the United States and around the world.

Jurors at federal district court in Camden deliberated into a sixth day before declaring the men guilty of conspiracy. The jurors, however, acquitted the men of an additional charge of attempted murder. Four of the five men were also convicted of related weapons counts.
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The Fort Dix five include brothers Eljvir, Dritan and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians who worked at a family roofing business; Mohamad Shnewer, a Jordanian who drove a cab and worked at his family's market in Pennsauken, and Serdar Tatar, a native of Turkey who was an assistant manager at a Philadelphia 7-Eleven.

Each faces up to life in prison on the conspiracy charge. Under terrorism laws, prosecutors may seek an enhanced sentence of life without parole.
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The evidence indicated that the men gathered weekly at a Palmyra mosque and regularly watched and discussed Al Qaeda videos extolling jihads and depicting deadly attacks against U.S. forces. In January 2006 and February 2007, they rented a house in the Pocono Mountains, where investigators said they trained for an attack by riding horses, shooting weapons at a rifle range and playing war games with paintball.

Read the whole crazy news article.

The conviction of these fellows oughtn't be taken as a serious warning to or about potential Islamic terrorists. It's a hell of a cautionary tale for loud-mouthed, bigoted white men bonding around their guns, Budweiser , & right wing fantasies. America has plenty of those nasties. Because in nearly every way except their names, religion, & choice of targets, the Fort Dix Five reminded me of stupid, angry white guys immersing themselves in the kind of insane neofascist rhetoric & culture you find simmering just below the surface all across America, bending elbows & ears in roadhouses, running around paintball battlefields, & making incautious remarks about the president-elect.

On one hand, I think the five guys were set up & entrapped by the FBI. On the other hand, it's undeniable that they were imagining & discussing some terrible ideas, & some of them are ingrates & not the least bit thankful to be living & working in America rather than stuck in godforsaken villages where they might have nothing to do but bitch about shameless American sluts as they drool over scantily clad women in dubbed reruns of CSI: Miami.

Their indiscreet talk centered on Fort Dix, the staging point this past summer for our National Guard units beginning the long journey to Iraq via some hot, difficult training in the West Texas desert. You can tell the jurors that has nothing to do with the charges, but you can't make them not think it.

I imagined these guys being spotted early by MPs & chased through the Jersey Pine Barrens for hours, our jihadists tossing their armaments & shouting, "Aiyee, aiyee," wading across mucky creeks, smacking at mosquitoes & scratching their poison ivy rashes, & surrendering to a couple of startled state troopers sipping Wawa coffee by a patrol car on a rural road outside the base. I'd film it as a dark comedy. In truth, I couldn't imagine them pullng together any kind of serious plot & acting on it. The most earnest conspirator was the FBI informant, a bad, bad man. Without his participation, it's possible the defendants would've morphed into a bowling team named "Jihad Pizza."

Really, I try to think the best of the clerks in the 7-11, & cab drivers, & the illegal immigrants nailing roof shingles on brutally hot afternoons.

No doubt The Fort Dix Five will appeal the verdict, & if they're granted one have a strong chance of reversing the conspiracy conviction. The gun charges could stick. But the Duka brothers would be glad to go home to Albania. Unlike any other members of their family they've exposed to deportation.

Labels: count the yoyos, in the news, Iraq, New Jersey