The Fort Dix Conspiracy

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Podcast

Behind the Fort Dix Six

TIME National Security reporter Amanda Ripley looks at a case of alleged homegrown terrorism, and how the government reacts

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Overheard at Dunkin' Donuts
There is an old saying among cops. "Good informant, good case; bad informant, bad case; no informant, no case," as Ronald Brooks, president of the National Narcotic Officers' Associations' Coalition, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in July. Informants are an excellent tool when they are meticulously supervised.

In the Fort Dix case, Omar was watched closely. "We felt fairly confident that we knew what was going on with these guys all the time," says U.S. Attorney Christie. There are more than 100 hours of recordings of Omar's conversations with the defendants. The month after Omar met Mohamed Shnewer, according to the complaint, Shnewer shared a DVD with Omar that allegedly contains jihadist recruitment messages. The next month Shnewer loaned Omar his laptop and told him to check out a file that appears to be the wills of at least two of the hijackers involved in 9/11, the complaint alleges.

Still, most of the recordings capture the normal, sometimes tedious chatter of young men. They drink coffee at Dunkin' Donuts and debate the merits of Ford vs. Chevy; they drink coffee and talk about their dismay over the war in Iraq; they drink coffee and talk about fishing. They play paintball and fire guns at snowballs lofted into the air. "I like to joke with these guys that they're like Albanian rednecks," says Michael Riley, attorney for Shain. There is something about the men's behavior that seems like that of kids at play. "It's like they were pretending," says Dritan's attorney, Huff. "The challenge will be to convince a jury they weren't serious."

The most damning statements seem to have come from Mohamed Shnewer when he was alone with the informant. On Aug. 1, he allegedly told Omar, "If you want to do anything here, there is Fort Dix and I don't want to exaggerate, and I assure you that you can hit an American base very easily ... When you go to a military base, you need mortars and RPGs." Under the law, an informant must be a witness to the crime — not the instigator. Shnewer's use of the second person, you, suggests that he may have viewed the informant as the initiator. "I am at your services as you have more experience than me in military bases and in life," Shnewer says at one point. At other times, however, Shnewer sounds more assertive. Later, he and Omar traveled to Fort Dix and other military bases to conduct surveillance, the complaint says. "My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," Shnewer says.

On the group's second trip to the Poconos, in February 2007, the FBI was watching. When the Duka brothers went to a public firearms range, undercover agents and video cameras monitored their activities. By then, the FBI had also introduced a second paid informant — a good way to double-check on the first informant. The recordings made by this man, an ethnic Albanian like the Dukas, have not been made public, but he seems to have played a less significant role than Omar.

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