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FBI informant's actions may have constituted entrapment

He railed against the US, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer, and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

These were not the actions of a terrorist, but of a paid FBI informant who helped bring down an alleged plot by six men to massacre US soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.

And those actions have raised questions of whether the government crossed the line and pushed the six men down a path they would not have otherwise followed.

It is an argument -- entrapment -- that has been made in other terrorism cases, and one that has failed miserably since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

One defense attorney on the case, Troy Archie, said no decision had been made on whether to argue entrapment, but based on the FBI's own account, "the guys sort of led them on."

Rocco Cipparone, a lawyer for another one of the defendants, said he will take a hard look at "the role of paid informants and how aggressive they were in potentially prodding or moving things along."

The Fort Dix Six were arrested earlier this week after a 15-month FBI investigation that relied heavily on two paid informants who secretly recorded meetings and telephone conversations in which the suspects talked of killing "in the name of Allah."

US Attorney Christopher Christie defended the government's handling of the case. He and the FBI portrayed the defendants as fanatics who were nearly ready to strike. They were arrested on Monday night during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons.

Former FBI agent Kevin Barrows said prosecutors appeared to have done things right.

"They corroborated with surveillance, and they had a gun buy set up," Barrows said. "That further solidified the case, as opposed to it just being a tape of somebody saying, `Yeah, I want to buy guns.' They worked this for a long time and the evidence seems really, really solid."

Prosecutors portrayed the six men -- Serdar Tatar, 23; Agron Abdullahu, 24; Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 -- as driven by hatred of the US, a description disputed by relatives and acquaintances.

Entrapment occurs when law enforcement officials entice others into committing a crime they otherwise would not have committed. Under the law, people cannot be convicted if they were entrapped.

But there is no entrapment if a person is willing to break the law and law officers offer to help.

"If the source talks them into committing a crime, that is entrapment," said retired FBI agent Craig Dotlo, a 32-year veteran.

But "if they are predisposed to commit a crime, and you give them the opportunity, that's fine."
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