The Ft Dix Plot- Five Convicted

Heigh ho, heigh ho-It's off to jail they go



The verdict is in-five men have been convicted for conspiring to attack Ft Dix, New Jersey and kill as many military personnel as possible. The defendants, all Muslim immigrants who resided in the Philadelphia area suburbs of New Jersey, face life in prison.

Since the attack never actually occurred, the defense claimed that all there was was a lot of talk-similar to what Rod Blagoyevich's attorney is claiming. Yet, the convictions on conspiracy seem clear when considering the evidence.

First, the agreement and intent are made clear by hundreds of hours of taped conversations recorded by an FBI informant with the defendants. As I recently spelled out in a recent description of the conspiracy law pertaining to Blogoyevich, the next step necessary to complete the conspiracy would be at least one overt act by any of the conspirators. That was apparently satisfied by going into the mountains to train for the attack and attempting to purchase 7 machine guns (at which point they were arrested in May 2007).

Also seized was Jihadist literature and videos, which also helped prove intent.

In addition, the defense claimed that the government informants were persons whose credibility could not be trusted by the jury. Very possible, but in these cases, it is always the burden of the prosecutor to corroborate everything the informant(s) testify to. It appears that burden was met.

Of course, Jim Sues, executive director of CAIR in New Jersey, had a different view:

"Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment. From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant", said Mr Sues.

Mohamed Younes, president of the American Muslim Union, adds, "I don't think they actually mean (sic) to do anything. I think they were acting stupid, like they thought the whole thing was a joke."

Hopefully, the mainstream media will give this story more than just one day and then bury it. It goes to remind us that there are some folks in this country who mean to do us harm.