Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Albanians involved in Ft. Dix assault plan

Not very good news out of NJ today.  Six men were arrested and charged with planning to enter Ft Dix, a US Army base,  and kill as many soldiers as possible.  Why am I mentioning it here?  Four of the six are ethnic Albanians from "former Yugoslavia".  According to the NJ Star Ledger, one of them had experience as a sniper in Kosovo.  

This is obviously very disturbing.  Ft. Dix was used as a major refugee reception area during the war in Kosovo.  Thousands of Kosovar refugees transited through Dix during the conflict in Kosovo.  The symbolism of attacking Dix is terrible, though it was apparently chosen because one of the suspects was familiar with the base from delivering pizzas.

Having said all that, Albanians live all over former Yugoslavia and it's interesting that none of the media outlets are reporting whether these men are Kosovar or not.  According to reports, they are:

NAME: Dritan Duka.
AGE: 28; Born in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.
HOME: Cherry Hill, N.J.
IMMIGRATION STATUS: In United States illegally.
OCCUPATION: Operates Colonial Roofing and National Roofing, which list business address at the home of his brothers, Eljvir and Shain Duka.

NAME: Shain Duka.
AGE: 26; Born January 1981 in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.
LIVES: Cherry Hill, N.J.
IMMIGRATION STATUS: In United States illegally.
OCCUPATION: Operates roofing businesses with his brothers.

NAME: Eljvir Duka.
ALIASES: Elvis Duka, Sulayman.
AGE: 23; Born in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.
LIVES: Cherry Hill, N.J.
IMMIGRATION STATUS: In United States illegally.
OCCUPATION: Operates roofing businesses with his brothers.

NAME: Agron Abdullahu.
AGE: 24; Born September 1982 in the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian.
LIVES: Buena Vista Township, N.J.
IMMIGRATION STATUS: Legal U.S. resident.
OCCUPATION: Works at a Shop-Rite supermarket.

I'm sure the vast majority of Kosovars are condemning this: judge the actions, not the ethnicity.  At this point, the Albanian press outlets have reported on this but the Kosovar ones I've checked (here, here and here) have not.  All in all, it's not a super day for Albanian-American relations.

1 comment:

Beth said...

Thanks, I was hoping you might comment with any insight.