Brothers behind Fort Dix plot were from pro-U.S. enclave

DEBAR, Macedonia — Three Muslim brothers who allegedly helped plot to kill soldiers at a U.S. Army post in New Jersey have roots in one of Europe's most pro-American corners — a region that remains grateful to the United States for ending the Kosovo war.

Dritan Duka, 28, Shain Duka, 26, and Eljvir Duka, 23, who were arrested in New Jersey this week in what U.S. authorities said was a bungled scheme to blow up and gun down soldiers at Fort Dix, were born in Debar, a remote town on Macedonia's rugged border with Albania.

Relatives in the ethnic Albanian-populated town of 15,000 said they had not seen the brothers in more than two decades but expressed disbelief Wednesday that the three would attack the United States.

"We all have been supporters of America. We were always thankful to America for its support during the wars in Kosovo and Macedonia," said a cousin, Elez Duka, 29.

"These are simple, ordinary people, and they've got nothing to do with terrorism. I expect their release, and I expect an apology," he said, waving his hands. "I see injustice. These are ridiculous charges."

His indignation captured the mood among Muslims in Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania — places that repeatedly have expressed gratitude to the United States for intervening in the 1998-99 Kosovo war and a 2001 ethnic conflict that pushed Macedonia to the brink of civil war.

Experts in Islam, national security, the Balkans and the Middle East were surprised by the make-up of the alleged Fort Dix plotters group, which also included another Albanian born in the former Yugoslavia, one Turk and a U.S. citizen born in Jordan.

U.S.-led NATO forces intervened in the former Yugoslavia in 1999 to stop Serbian "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims in the ethnic Albanian enclave of Kosovo, which is part of Serbia.

Beginning in 1999, Fort Dix was a temporary resettlement point for Kosova refugees fleeing the strife.

"It's obvious that this is not being done from the standpoint of Albanian nationalism," said Robert Saunders, an expert on political Islam at the State University of New York in Farmingdale.

Charles Kupchan, a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, said there are reported pockets of Muslim extremists in the Balkans.

"One hears of cells operating in Bosnia, but those consist either of foreigners or Bosnian Muslims, not Albanians," he said.

In the case of the New Jersey men, "we may be dealing with a situation in which people are abandoning their old identity and embracing their Muslim identity, and this is how international jihad works. ... This more likely is a set of extremists motivated by the same concerns about what is going on in the Middle East that have driven Muslim extremism elsewhere," he said.

Albania was among the first countries to answer Washington's call for troops to help support U.S.-led military offensives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, which many expect to gain independence from Serbia this year, U.S. flags are commonplace. The main avenue is Bill Clinton Boulevard, renamed to honor the U.S. president who ordered airstrikes that halted former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's brutal crackdown in the province.

Like many Europeans, ethnic Albanians staged a big demonstration after the United States led the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but theirs was a pro-America rally, not an anti-war protest.

In and out of Debar, people struggled to reconcile those feelings with the indictment of the three brothers and a fourth ethnic Albanian suspect, Agron Abdullahu, 24. A Palestinian born in Jordan and a Turkish native also were arrested.

It was unclear whether Abdullahu also came from Debar, but U.S. authorities said he served as a sniper during the Kosovo war, which pitted ethnic Albanian separatists against Serbian troops loyal to Milosevic.

Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku wrote a letter to the U.S. mission in Pristina on Wednesday expressing the "extraordinary feeling that Kosovo's people have for the U.S." Ceku also denounced what he called "the disgusting idea" that Albanians could be involved in an attack "against a nation that has been very generous so far."

The Duka brothers' grandmother, Naze Duka, was visibly upset as word of their arrests spread through the modest, two-story brick houses in Debar, about 110 miles southwest of the Macedonian capital, Skopje.

"America is good — you work, you earn money there," the 88-year-old said. "I have no idea where this all came from. How did this happen?"

U.S. officials say the brothers were in the country illegally. Elez Duka, the brothers' cousin, said they had not been back because they didn't have the necessary papers.

He said the brothers phoned occasionally. Over the past two years, Elez Duka said, his cousins told him they had grown long beards and had become more devoted to Islam, but he insisted they were incapable of involvement in a terrorist plot.

Few ethnic Albanians embrace militant Islam. Most are moderate or secular.

Even those in Debar who described themselves as devout Muslims denounced the Fort Dix plot.

"They must have been crazy. They shouldn't dare throw a stone at America," said Rrahim Duka, 70, a distant relative of the brothers, as a loudspeaker blared Muslim prayers in Debar's main square.

"Who saved us? America," he said. "We are in America's hands."

Associated Press reporter Llazar Semini and The Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to this report.