The Fort Dix Trial Nears an End

The jury is in day five of deliberations in the trial of five foreign-born Muslim men in New Jersey who are accused of planning an assault on Ft. Dix. When this case was first reported, I called it "Mohamed Mitty", because the defendants sounded like they were fantasizing, rather than planning. (Fantasy is not yet a crime.) As Aquagirl said:

I have thought from the moment this story broke that these guys are no different from young disenfranchised losers all over the country, sitting around drinking beer and smoking dope and talking about how they're going to fuck up this or that dude. Or make a big score on a drug sale or rob a bank or ... 99% of which comes to nothing. But this is the big scary because these guys were Muslim instead of white. It just goes to prove how ridiculous the whole concept of this war on terror is. This is our big terror moment? Almost six years of fucking with the Constitution because of some pizza delivery guys whose mouths are writing checks their ass can't cash? Pathetic.

The trial has been entertaining for its descriptions of the enterprising work done by the FBI informants in the case. One of them, an illegal alien former used-car salesman facing deportation and with a prior conviction for fraud, was paid $240,000 and is heard on the tapes urging the stoner defendants on to jihad. At one point, one of the defendants became alarmed by the informant's request of a map of Ft. Dix and reported him to the FBI. Nothing came of it.

Another defendant is heard on the tapes saying that he wasn't going to hurt anyone, but you had to watch out, because if you're a Muslim in America even a normal conversation can get you charged with conspiracy.

The informant who requested the map now lives in an undisclosed location and is still drawing an FBI salary of $1,500 a week, with $1,400 per month for rent, pending the outcome of the trial, but complains he might be better off on welfare. His body mic inadvertantly picked up a conversation he had with a cousin back home in Egypt in which he advised the cousin to burn down the house of another family with whom he was having a business dispute and shoot the survivors. The business was pirating DVDs. The informant was also caught smoking pot four days before the trial started. I think I need a gig as an FBI informant. For a neat quarter-mil, I'll go shoot the shit with any half-baked hero you want to put on death row, and $1,400 per month would more than cover my mortgage.

The jury has asked for transcripts of the testimony about the informant asking the defendants to produce a map of Ft. Dix. I take this and the length of time they've been deliberating as hopeful signs they might acquit. But whatever they do, it sounds like they're taking the job seriously.