“Fort Dix Six”
06/26/07
On May 8, 2007, six foreign-born Muslim men were arrested and faced charges in federal court for plotting to attack Fort Dix and murder American soldiers serving at the Army installation in New Jersey. They are currently being held without bail.
Authorities became aware of the plot in January 2006 after a clerk at an electronics store notified the FBI about a “disturbing” video he had been asked to copy onto a DVD. According to court documents, the video showed 10 men in their early 20’s shooting assault weapons while calling for jihad. The six arrested men were part of that group. By March 2006, the group was infiltrated by an informant that was working with the FBI. The men also allegedly conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region including Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and a Philadelphia Coast Guard station.
The Philadelphia RCFL is providing digital forensics support to the on-going investigation.
During a press conference announcing the arrest of the men, Special Agent in Charge JP Weis said, “Today we dodged a bullet. In fact, when you look at the type of weapons that this group was trying to purchase, we may have dodged a lot of bullets. We had a group that was forming a platoon to take on an army. They identified their target, they did their reconnaissance. They had maps. And they were in the process of buying weapons. Luckily, we were able to stop that.”
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