But despite saying things like that, which makes it clear that these Muslims wanted to kill people at Fort Dix because they thought Allah would reward them for doing so, the defense wants prosecutors to stop talking about “jihad” in connection with this case — it is “inflammatory.”
“US: Don’t drop jihad references from charges,” by Geoff Mulvihill for AP, July 18 (thanks to Writer Mom):
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) “” Federal prosecutors say they should not be forced to drop references to al-Qaida and jihad from the indictment of five men accused of plotting to attack soldiers on Fort Dix.
Lawyers for the men last month asked a judge in U.S. District Court in Camden to delete such language, saying it was “inflammatory” and was included in earlier court filings to incite prejudice against the defendants.
In a response filed Friday, government lawyers said the terms in question are central to the case, arguing that jihadist principles motivated the defendants.
Serdar Tatar, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer and the brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka have pleaded not guilty to the May 2007 charges that they were planning to sneak onto the base and kill soldiers.
The government said they chose the Army installation, which is used mostly to train reservists for deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, largely because Tatar’s father owned a pizza shop nearby and he knew his way around the area.
An attack was never carried out, though prosecutors say the men trained for it on trips to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.
The men, all foreign-born Muslims in their 20s, have spent much of their lives in the Philadelphia area. […]
In 2006, the government says, Shnewer said that he owned a gun and had considered camping near the White House and trying to assassinate President Bush.
He also told the informant, according to the filing: “This is what we chose for ourselves. If you do not want to assist us in such dire times, that means shut up. No good will ever come out of you.”
In another conversation, the government says Dritan Duka told an informant, “Better we go fight for Allah maybe at least we go Jannah (heaven or paradise)… Over there we have good wives, everything.”…