The indictment repeats the charges and allegations made public at the time the arrests were announced, but provides few new details about the case.
The arrests last month capped a 16-month investigation by the FBI and the South Jersey Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The case includes dozens of secretly recorded conversations made by two cooperating witnesses who managed to infiltrate the group. The FBI informants allegedly took part in a training session in February with the others that included firearms practice and watching radical Islamic videotapes produced by al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
The indictment charges that five of the defendants, Mohamad Shnewer, 22; Serdar Tatar, 23; and brothers Dritan Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir Duka, 23, "were inspired by . . . al-Qaeda, a foreign terrorist organization" and planned an "armed paramilitary" attack on Fort Dix.
Shnewer's defense attorney, Rocco Cipparone, said yesterday he thought the indictment's description of the five defendants as being inspired by al-Qaeda was unnecessary and could taint a potential jury pool.
"When you use those words, people tend to react emotionally, not intellectually," he said. "To put that conclusion out there using those buzzwords is troublesome."
Cipparone said he hadn't seen any evidence in the case and didn't know whether the defendants had watched videos or looked at Internet sites with al-Qaeda content. He said the mention of al-Qaeda was "premature."
"When you talk about someone being inspired by something that's a state of mind, that's something they're going to have to show direct or indirect proof of," Cipparone said. "If there's proof to show, there's proof to show. But do it in a courtroom after you've vetted the jurors."
