Dix informant: No strategy sessions

Mahmoud Omar, the lead government witness in the Fort Dix terrorism case, conceded yesterday that he never held a strategy session with all five defendants to discuss plans to attack the South Jersey military complex.

Responding to a series of questions from defense attorney Rocco Cipparone Jr., Omar also said that there never were any serious training sessions for the attack; that the group never reviewed a map of the base supplied by one of the defendants; and that no one involved in the alleged conspiracy videotaped Fort Dix or any other military complex.

"No sir" and "You are correct," Omar said as Cipparone, the attorney for lead defendant Mohamad Shnewer, wrapped up his sixth and final day of cross-examination with a series of questions aimed at underlining the defense's argument that no one actually intended to attack Fort Dix.

Omar, 39, an Egyptian national who secretly recorded more than 200 conversations while working as a paid informant for the FBI, is scheduled to return to the witness stand today as lawyers for the four other defendants in the case complete their cross-examinations.

The witness has been on the stand for 10 days in federal court in Camden. The trial began Oct. 20.

The defense contends that Omar, a felon who was facing deportation, manipulated Shnewer and the other defendants into a conspiracy that they had no intention of carrying out.

As a result, the witness' credibility and motivation have been the focus of an intense and, at times, tedious cross-examination that has led Judge Robert Kugler to admonish the defense to speed the process.

The defense has tried to show that although Omar had in-depth discussions with Shnewer about a jihad-inspired assault on Fort Dix, the other defendants were largely unaware of or not involved in the planning.

Michael N. Huff, the lawyer for defendant Dritan Duka, spent several hours yesterday again going over conversations that had been played earlier for the jury and that, in some cases, also were the focus of Cipparone's cross-examination.

The defendants in the case are Duka, 29; his brothers Shain, 27, and Eljvir, 25; Shnewer, 24; and Serdar Tatar, 25.

All five are foreign-born Muslims who grew up in Cherry Hill. They could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge in the case, plotting to kill American military personnel.

Dritan and Shain Duka were arrested at Omar's Cherry Hill apartment on May 7, 2007, after buying seven assault rifles from the informant.

But through the cross-examination and the taped conversations, the defense has tried to show that the two brothers, gun enthusiasts, wanted the weapons for target shooting.

"We only need it for that right now," Dritan Duka said in one conversation in which he and Omar discussed a list of weapons that Omar said he could obtain.

Huff and Cipparone have pointed out that Duka passed on the opportunity to buy more powerful weapons - including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and an M60 machine gun - that Omar said were available.

At another point, Duka told Omar that he wanted the guns so that when he, his brothers and their friends went to a firing range, no one would have to wait for a turn.

"I trust you, brother," said Duka, who also claimed he was "street smart" and adept at judging people.

Then, as Omar's tape recorder continued to run, he added, "I got five kids so I don't want to go down. People catch me like they think I'm a terrorist."

Huff, who slowly walked Omar through several of those kinds of conversations, asked the witness whether Duka ever suspected him of being an FBI informant.

"If he suspected, would I be here now?," Omar asked.