http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270601,00.html
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. — Six people were arrested on charges they plotted to attack the Fort Dix Army base and "kill as many soldiers as possible," federal authorities said Tuesday.
The suspects were scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Camden later Tuesday to face charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. servicemen, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey.
A news conference was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the U.S. District Courthouse in Camden.
The men were identified in court papers as Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka, Serdar Tatar and Agron Abdullahu. Checks with Immigration and Customs Enforcement show that Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka are illegally living in the United States, according to FBI complaints unsealed with their arrests
Officials said four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one in Jordan and one in Turkey. All had lived in the United States for years. Three were in the United States illegally, two had work permits, and the other is a U.S. citizen.
"There are a number of immigrations issues that are being worked out," federal sources told FOX News.
Five of them lived in Cherry Hill, about 10 miles east of Philadelphia and 20 miles southwest of Fort Dix, Drewniak said.
"They were planning an attack on Fort Dix in which they would kill as many soldiers as possible," Drewniak said.
The suspects were described as "Islamic radicals" by Greg Reinert, a spokesman for the United States Attorney's Office. A law enforcement source told FOX News that all of the suspects are recent converts and were not born Muslims.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday there is "no direct evidence" that the men have ties to international terrorism.
"They are not charged with being members of an international terrorism organization," Snow said. "At least at this point, there is no evidence that they received direction from international terror organizations."
The FBI was tipped off in early 2006 after someone brought a video to a store to be copied onto DVD, according to the agency's criminal complaint. The video showed 10 men, including the six arrested, shooting assault weapons in militia style and calling for jihad, the complaint said.
Click here to read the complaint (FindLaw pdf)
"What concerns us is, obviously, they began conducting surveillance and weapons training in the woods and were discussing killing large numbers of soldiers," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie told him one of the suspects had a job delivering pizzas to the base and used that opportunity to scout out the possible attack.
"He delivered pizzas to the base and that gave him the ability to map out the who, what, where, when and why of their activities," Smith said.
Smith said the men had been under surveillance for 16 months and practiced their attacks in the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania. He said they also watched Osama bin Laden videos.
"While the group's alleged actions are alarming, it may not have gone beyond the concept stage," a federal source told FOX News.
Authorities believe the men trained for the attack in the woods in the Poconos and allegedly conducted surveillance at other area military institutions, including the Army's Fort Monmouth, the official said. Federal sources told FOX News the alleged targets went beyond military installations "to other targets of opportunity in the area."
The complaint alleges some of the men conducted surveillance last August of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and the Coast Guard building in Philadelphia.
The official said the men had lived in the United States for some time and were arrested as part of a joint federal and local investigation.
State Police Capt. Al Della Fave said Tuesday that the investigation had been in the works for about a year. Much of the information obtained in the case came from cell-phone conversations and Internet chats. The case documents are still sealed.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reported on its Web site that the men had agreed to buy AK-47 assault rifles from an arms dealer who was secretly cooperating with the FBI. It cited a law enforcement person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak about the arrests.
The description of the suspects as "Islamic militants" renewed fears in New Jersey's Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim men from New Jersey were rounded up and detained by authorities in the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but none was connected to that plot.
"If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. "But when the government says 'Islamic militants,' it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous.
"Don't equate actions with religion," he said.
Fort Dix is used to train soldiers, particularly reservists. It also housed refugees from Kosovo in 1999.
At the main gate of the sprawling Army base, military police officers ordered reporters to leave the area immediately.
Republican U.S. Rep. James Saxton, who represents Fort Dix, said the base, along with adjacent McGuire Air Force Base, has been on its highest security alert level.
"This serves as a stark reminder that the threat of jihadists around the world and even here at home is very, very real," Saxton said. "It is not a threat that exists only in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East."
Since 2001, the base has been closed to the public. There are heavily armed guards at entrances, along with X-ray machines. Yet the main road through neighboring Cookstown cuts through the base and is accessible to the public. A half-dozen locations on the base, including at least two where soldiers were conducting maneuvers Tuesday morning, were only a few hundred yards off the main road.
Jeff Sagnip, a spokesman for Saxton, said Fort Dix typically has 15,000 people, including 3,000 soldiers, while McGuire, which is adjacent to Fort Dix, has about 11,500 people.
Soldiers at Fort Dix have been training for warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sagnip said.
"Everything is a replica of what they would face in the field," he said.
In 1999, Fort Dix sheltered more than 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
After the war, refugees were allowed to return to the U.N.-run province of Kosovo in the new nation of Serbia or to seek permanent residency and citizenship in the United States. The U.N. Security Council is considering whether to approve a plan to grant Kosovo independence from Serbia under the supervision of the European Union and the United States.
FOX News' Catherine Herridge, Ian McCaleb and The Associated Press contributed to this report