Fort Dix Defense Claims Entrapment

It didn't take long for the Fort Dix six to trot out the entrapment defense. They always do.

He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer, and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

These were not the actions of a terrorist, but of a paid FBI informant who helped bring down an alleged plot by six Muslim men to massacre U.S. soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.

And those actions have raised questions of whether the government crossed the line and pushed the six men down a path they would not have otherwise followed.

It is an argument—entrapment—that has been made in other terrorism cases, and one that has failed miserably in this post-Sept. 11 era.

One defense attorney on the case, Troy Archie, said no decision has been made on whether to argue entrapment, but based on the FBI's own account, "the guys sort of led them on."

These guys were thinking about terrorism on their own and didn't need any encouragement of their own. After all, the videos show them engaging in weapons training before the FBI even got involved. They were already moving in the direction, and they were showing a propensity to engage in terrorism even without the FBI involvment.

It doesn't matter that the six misjudged the costs of procuring the AK-47s. They may have thought that the weapons cost $500 each, while they would really cost anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000. Recall that the 1993 WTC bombers didn't think that requesting the deposit back on the rental truck used in the bombing would result in their being captured by law enforcement either. The plotters could have been as dumb as a bag of hammers, but they were plotting and scheming to engage in terrorism. Stupid or uninformed people can still kill.

I still believe that the Duka brothers will eventually turn on the others, claiming that it was Abdullahu and Tatar's fault.

UPDATE:
The New York Times reports that relatives of the six began noticing changes in their behavior beginning a few years ago:

Ramiz Duka said his three cousins started to change two to three years ago. Three young men who had grown up with more American friends than fellow ethnic Albanian immigrants began to lecture other Muslims about religion.

“They were praying different, they were talking different, they were telling people what to believe,” Mr. Duka recalled of Eljvir, Shain and Dritan Duka, three of the six men charged in southern New Jersey this week with plotting to attack the Fort Dix military reservation. “They thought they only knew the right way.”

Ramiz Duka, a Philadelphia area general contractor whose father is the brother of the suspects’ father, Ferik, said relations grew so strained a year ago that he declined an invitation to attend a family wedding. The playing of music — a centuries-old tradition at Albanian weddings — had been banned.

“They thought they only knew the right way.” That's a hallmark of the jihadis and Islamist movement. They believe they know the only right interpretation of Islamic law and what is good for all. The Islamists then want to impose their beliefs on everyone else.

UPDATE:
The six are being held without bail.

Prosecutors argued today that the men, all of whom were born outside the United States, should be denied bail because they posed a flight risk.

Only one of the men, Mohamad Shnewer, requested bail, with his family offering to put up four properties worth $580,000 and requesting that he be placed under house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet.

An assistant United States attorney, Stephen R. Stigall, argued that house arrest offered no protection to the public because Mr. Shnewer “was living in that same house” as the plan to attack Fort Dix was being put together.

United States Magistate Joel Schneider ordered that Mr. Shnewer, along with the five others, be held without bail. They have been held in a detention center in Philadelphia since their arrest.

Five of the men — Mohamad Shnewer, 22; Serdar Tatar, 23; Dritan Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir Duka, 23 — are charged with conspiring to kill uniformed military persnnel, an offense punishable by life in prison.