I don’t understand. Send people away from the base?
The FBI arrested five people in Cherry Hill and one in Pennsylvania last night for an alleged plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, three federal officials said.
Some of the six men, who are believed to be from Albania or other Balkan countries, tried to purchase automatic weapons from a local gun dealer, sources said.
Greg Reinhert, a Justice Department spokesman in Camden, described the six as “Islamic radicals ... who were involved in a plot to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey.”
“Their alleged intention was to conduct an armed assault on the army base and to kill as many soldiers as possible,” he said.
“These guys were absolutely serious,” another official said.
Carolee Nisbet, a public information officer at Fort Dix, said: “I understand that they weren’t just targeting Fort Dix, that it was a multiple-base plan to attack several bases in the Northeast.” She declined to elaborate.
At the base this morning, Nisbet said: “They are going to make the security procedures more stringent, but we’re not going to increase the threat level. We are just going to make people more aware of their surroundings.
WNBC-TV in New York reports that three of the men are brothers, and have lived in the United States for several years.
All six men are expected to be arraigned in federal court in Camden today, according to Reinert.
Fort Dix is a 13,400-acre military post near Exit 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike in Burlington County. On an average day, there are about 15,000 to 16,000 soliders and civilians. It is a regional reserve and mobilization site, the largest such site in the country.
The FBI and immigration officials are expected to hold a news conference at about 2:30 this afternoon.