Federal charges were filed May 8 against six individuals for plotting to attack U.S. troops at Fort Dix, N.J., with assault rifles. Although al Qaeda allegedly inspired the suspects in this attempt to carry out "jihad" in the United States, the suspects bear the hallmarks of amateur jihadists, and probably were not connected to the jihadist network. The case, however, serves as a reminder to U.S. authorities that not all potential militants fit the Middle Eastern profile....

Agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided a house the night of May 7 in Cherry Hill, N.J., arresting six men suspected of plotting an attack with assault rifles at the U.S. Army's nearby base at Fort Dix....

Officials identified the six men, all in their 20s, as three brothers, Dritan, Eljvir, and Shain Duka; Serdar Tatar; Agron Abdullahu; and Mohamed Shnewer. All six of the alleged plotters were foreign-born. Abdullahu, born in Turkey, and Tatar, born in Jordan, were naturalized U.S. citizens. Shnewer and the three Duka brothers were ethnic Albanians; at least two of the Albanians entered the United States illegally. U.S. law enforcement sources believe that at least two of the alleged plotters entered the United States illegally via the Texas-Mexico border....

For U.S. counterterrorism authorities, the arrests in New Jersey show that not all militant suspects fit the same profile. The four Albanians are European in appearance, not Middle Eastern. They were able to blend in easily in New Jersey's ethically diverse population of Irish, Polish, Italian, and African-Americans. Other non-Middle Eastern jihadists include Muriel Degauque, a Belgian who traveled to Iraq with her Arab husband to blow herself up as a suicide bomber, and Sulejmen Talovic, a Bosnian Muslim who opened fire on a mall in Utah, killing five shoppers and wounding four others. Their appearance made them difficult to detect. Al Qaeda realizes this, and thus encourages the use of non-Middle Eastern male operatives, especially those of European stock. [Link]