The Fort Dix Dumbshow

The plot to attack Fort Dix in south central New Jersey began to unravel on Jan. 31, 2006, when a retail store employee called the FBI about a “disturbing” video a customer had dropped off to be converted into a DVD.

The video showed 10 men who appeared to be in their early 20s “shooting assault weapons at a firing range in a militia-like style while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic … ‘God is Great,'” according to a 27-page federal criminal complaint the U.S. Department of Justice released Tuesday.

Six of the 10 men identified in that video were arrested on charges of trying to attack Fort Dix, an installation whose layout one of the men — Serdar Tatar — purportedly knew “like the palm of his hand,” according to an affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent John J. Ryan.

Left unexplained was why only six of the 10 were arrested and whether more arrests were forthcoming. The employee who alerted the FBI wasn’t identified; the store’s name wasn’t disclosed.

The complaint said Tatar and five other men arrested — Dritan Duka, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka and Agron Abdullahu — amassed firearms, sought illegal Russian-made AK-47 assault rifles, viewed terrorist-training videos on their computers and trained in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.

One of the videos appeared to be the “last will and testament” of two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, and another contained “images of Osama bin Laden and other Islamic extremists making various speeches in which the speakers call the viewer to join the jihadist movement,” according to the complaint. Jihad is an Arabic word that means holy war.

Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka are illegal aliens, according to the complaint.

Two unnamed informants — identified as cooperating witnesses 1 and 2 — who infiltrated the group taped numerous conversations and telephone calls with the suspects, apparently with their consent.

“Uhhh…Louie. Looks like we got another group of amateur Islamic assholes here. How long should we string them along?”

“Ohhh…infiltrate ’em as usual. Maybe they can be…useful. YOU know. Like in 2001?”

Left unexplained was why only six of the 10 were arrested.

Two unnamed informants — identified as cooperating witnesses 1 and 2 — who infiltrated the group taped numerous conversations and telephone calls with the suspects, apparently with their consent.