Fort Dix informants' actions examined

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer and gave the comrades 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, one of two who helped bring down an alleged plot by six Muslim men to massacre U.S. soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.

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

Entrapment is an argument that has been made in other terrorism cases, and one that has failed miserably in the 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 account, "the guys sort of led them on."

Rocco Cipparone, a lawyer for another defendant, said he will take a hard look at "the role of paid informants and how aggressive they were in potentially prodding or moving things along."

The Fort Dix Six were arrested Monday after a 15-month FBI investigation that relied heavily on two paid informants who secretly recorded meetings and telephone conversations in which the suspects talked of killing "in the name of Allah."

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie defended the government's handling of the case. He and the FBI portrayed the defendants as Muslim fanatics who were nearly ready to strike. They were arrested during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons.

Former FBI agent Kevin Barrows said prosecutors appeared to have done things right. "They corroborated with surveillance, and they had a gun buy set up," Barrows said. "That further solidified the case, as opposed to it just being a tape of somebody saying, 'Yeah, I want to buy guns.' "

Prosecutors portrayed the six men — Serdar Tatar, 23; Agron Abdullahu, 24; Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 — as driven by hatred of the United States, a description disputed by relatives and acquaintances.

"I never in my wildest dreams imagined what they've been accused of," said Ismail Badat, trustee of the Islamic Center of South Jersey in Palmyra, where the Duka brothers worshipped.

The same documents that prosecutors used to build a case against the suspects also depict them as somewhat disorganized, lackluster plotters. Clumsy and amateurish, too: The FBI learned of the alleged plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD.

One of the men, Tatar, called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix, and he feared the incident was terrorist-related, according to court documents.

"It could be a defense, that he felt he was being pressured to do things and actually called law enforcement to report it," said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer and Muslim leader in New Jersey who is not involved in the case.

Entrapment occurs when law-enforcement officials entice others into committing a crime they otherwise would not have committed. Under the law, people cannot be convicted if they were entrapped. But there is no entrapment if a person is willing to break the law and law officers offer to help.

"If the source talks them into committing a crime, that is entrapment," said retired FBI agent Craig Dotlo. But "if they are predisposed to commit a crime, and you give them the opportunity, that's fine."

Among other things, even before the informant presented the list of weapons he said he could get, Dritan Duka unwittingly asked an undercover federal agent he had seen at a firing range about where he might buy an AK-47 or M-16, according to the FBI.

Archie, the defense attorney, conceded it is difficult to win an entrapment defense. "It's just got to be obvious, obvious entrapment for it to fly," he said.

Attorney Henry Klingeman unsuccessfully argued government agents had entrapped London merchant Hemant Lakhani, convicted in New Jersey in 2005. Lakhani was caught in a sting trying to arrange the sale of at least 50 shoulder-fired missiles for shooting down U.S. airliners. He is serving a 47-year prison sentence.

"In the post-9/11 era, the entrapment defense is basically useless," Klingeman said.

Entrapment also failed as a defense in the case of Shahwar Matin Siraj, who was convicted in New York City of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station in 2003. Authorities had recruited an Egyptian man as an informant.

Siraj's lawyer, Martin Stolar, argued at trial that Siraj had no interest in violence until the informant showed him photos of prisoners being abused at the Abu Ghraib prison and told him it was his duty as a Muslim to retaliate. Siraj was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years.

Vincent Henry, director of the Homeland Security Management Institute at Long Island University, said he is convinced the Fort Dix defendants were capable of pulling off an attack.

"The arrests were made as they were on their way to purchase ... at least some of the weapons. They had seemed to plan it out very, very well."