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6 charged with plot to kill Fort Dix soldiers

From Kevin Bohn and Kelli Arena
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six men were arrested overnight after being accused of plotting an attack against Fort Dix in New Jersey, and federal charges were to be filed Tuesday, sources told CNN.

The six are from the former Yugoslavia, sources said.

The men were planning to use automatic weapons to shoot soldiers at the Army post, according to a federal law enforcement source and a senior government source.

The district attorney scheduled a news conference at 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss the case.

The men, some of whom were related to each other, had been doing surveillance and planning "for a while," and they trained in the Poconos Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania, according to the federal law enforcement source.

They played paintball and test-fired weapons, a law enforcement source said.

New Jersey state troopers and the FBI were involved in investigating and arresting the suspects. An informant played a key role in the investigation, the sources said.

One of the sources said there is a video and an audiotape of the planning.

The Newark Star-Ledger reported on its Web site that the men took a videotape of their practice sessions to a store to have it burned to a DVD, and that a store employee contacted the FBI because of the video's contents.

Sources told the Star-Ledger the men were lured to a meeting with an FBI informant posing as an arms dealer. The newspaper's sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Federal authorities said the men's goal was to "kill as many soldiers as possible," according to The Associated Press.

While authorities are glad to have arrested them, the individuals are "hardly hard core terrorists," one law enforcement source said.

Another source said that while the allegations are "troubling," they are "not the type that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up."

Fort Dix is an Army installation that trains and mobilizes reserves, National Guard and active soldiers going to war. The AP reported that it was used in 1999 to house refugees from Kosovo.

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