Fort Dix: Once a "paradise" for Albanian refugees from Kosovo, now a target

The Newark Star-Ledger reports:

Federal investigators last night arrested six Islamic radicals who were planning a heavily armed attack against soldiers at Fort Dix as part of a jihad against America, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

. . . The U.S. Attorney's Office said the men planned to "kill as many soldiers as possible."

Who exactly are these "Islamic radicals"?

Four are ethnic Albanians, one was born in Turkey, and a sixth was born in Jordan, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Officials identified the men as Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka, Serdar Tatar, Mohamad Shnewer and Agron Abdullahu. They are described as being in their early 20s.

The six had been under FBI surveillance for 15 months and prepared for their alleged plot by shooting paintball guns and real weapons in Gouldsboro, Pa., 30 miles southeast of Scranton, officials said. One had experience as a sniper in Kosovo, according to the complaint.

The men also allegedly watched jihadist videos in which Osama bin Laden urged them toward martyrdom.

"They were prepared to die," said a law enforcement source who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the arrests. "We became increasingly convinced this was for real and these guys were ready to roll."

The men had scouted out Fort Monmouth, Dover Air Force Base, Lakehurst Naval Air Station and the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard before settling on Fort Dix, a base that is used to mobilize troops to Iraq, according to the complaint. One of them, Tatar, had regular access to secure areas of the facility through his job as a deliveryman and knew "it like the palm of his hand," according to the complaint.

People were surprised by the arrests, according to the Star-Ledger report:

A high school friend of Eljir and Shain Duka recalled them as typical teenagers."We hung out in study hall together," said David Jonathon, who is 24 and attended Cherry Hill High School West with the suspects."We did teenage stuff. Drinking. Girls. Stuff like that."

The Duka brothers had been popular in school, said Jonathon, of Cherry Hill. Shain drove a Cadillac Escalade SUV. Their family owned a pizzeria. But when Jonathon saw Shain Duka recently for the first time in three years, the once fun-loving teenager was now growing a beard and spoke of converting to Islam. "He was trying to get me to go to prayer services with them," Jonathon said.

Michelle Malkin reminds readers what Fort Dix meant to the Albanian refugees coming in from Kosovo back in 1999 (from a CNN dispatch):

The sounds of Islamic calls to prayer echo across Fort Dix, temporary host to thousands of ethnic Albanians who fled war-ravaged Kosovo. But the U.S. Army base will soon play final taps for the refugee resettlement program that should end this month.

"I feel like I'm in a paradise," one Kosovar explained, as she described the base that has been a haven for about 4,000 refugees.