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Past arrests have been of ‘small fry,’ expert says

Andrew Maykuth Philadelphia Inquirer

Wary of a number of federal anti-terror cases that proved to be overblown, two legal experts Tuesday cautioned about attaching too much significance to the arrest of six Muslims for plotting to attack Fort Dix.

The federal government’s strategy to aggressively intervene early with any suspected terrorism plot has sometimes resulted in prosecutions that failed to live up to their initial billing.

“The fact is that most of those arrested (in the past) are small fry and wannabes,” said Daniel Benjamin, a terrorism expert and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “That’s a reflection of the fact that al-Qaida has a hard time getting people in here and has higher priorities.”

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey were quick to note that the six men arrested Tuesday – all from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East – had no known ties to international terrorists. But the arrests were initially announced from the White House, attaching a significance that implied it was more than a homegrown conspiracy.

Benjamin said he knew too little about the New Jersey allegations to draw a conclusion about the seriousness of the threat. That the New Jersey men took a video of themselves firing assault weapons to a store for copying, he said, “somewhat indicates they weren’t the A-team of terrorists.”

The New Jersey case, where the suspects trained by engaging in simulated combat with paint-ball guns, bears some resemblance to a 2003 Virginia case in which 11 Muslim men from the Washington area were charged with participating in paramilitary training – including playing paintball – to prepare for “holy war” abroad.

Some say the government’s “preventive paradigm” calling upon law enforcement to intervene early yields symbolic victories but, in the long run, may be counterproductive.

David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor and civil liberties expert, said prosecutors are under pressure to bring cases quickly.

“But there’s a risk of losing valuable intelligence if a case is prosecuted too early, as well as assembling a weak case against a real security threat – the risk of losing a serious case,” said Cole.

Others say it is impossible to measure the deterrent effect of the government’s early intervention against suspects for what appear to be petty offenses such as immigration violations.