WASHINGTON — A federal jury convicted five Muslim men Monday of plotting to kill soldiers at an Army base in New Jersey in a case that showed an aggressive FBI effort to infiltrate suspected homegrown terrorist cells.
The five men, all Muslim immigrants who have lived in the United States for some time, were acquitted of the related charge of attempted murder, but could face life in prison for their conviction on conspiracy to kill American soldiers. Sentencing is scheduled for April.
Critics of the government's anti-terrorism approach said the case amounted to entrapment of angry young men and that if not for the actions of the FBI's informants, the group of immigrants would have done nothing more than talk about an attack.
However, security experts praised the convictions and the FBI investigation that led to them, arguing that the probe stopped a group of amateur terrorists before they could become experts, execute a plot and possibly spawn other cells.
The case sparked widespread concern because it involved an apparently homegrown group of angry immigrants who had no contact with foreign terrorist organizations and instead found motivation from jihadist propaganda culled from the Internet.
During the 12-week trial in Camden, federal prosecutors argued that the men, some legal residents and some in the U.S. illegally, had planned to attack Ft. Dix, where one of the defendants had made pizza deliveries.
Together they watched anti-American jihadist videos, talked about attacking soldiers and ultimately tried to buy assault weapons through a government informant.
Still, the trial made clear that the five were not professional terrorists. A video showed the accused men shooting assault weapons at a firing range, but revealed that they had little knowledge about how to organize an attack.
James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said that without foreign expertise, the men were amateurs with few skills.
"These guys were clearly at sea when it came to staging an attack," Lewis said.
Local Muslim groups echoed defense lawyers' criticism of the government's use of informants. The two main informants in the case worked to stave off deportation and were paid thousands of dollars.
One informant told the men about someone in Baltimore who could sell them weapons, and the first arrests in the case took place at that informant's apartment.
