They put the term in scare quotes, but it’s still a shock to see CNN use the I word like this: ‘Islamic radicals’ arrested in plot to kill Fort Dix soldiers.

Has CAIR started freaking out yet?

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Six “Islamic radicals” involved in a plot to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey were arrested Monday night, the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey said Tuesday.

One of the suspects was born in Jordan, another in Turkey, the U.S. attorney’s office said. The rest are believed to be from the former Yugoslavia, “either U.S. citizens or living illegally in the United States,” the office said in a statement.

“Their alleged intention was to conduct an armed assault on the army base and to kill as many soldiers as possible,” according to the statement.

The six are expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Camden on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.

The district attorney scheduled a news conference at 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss the case.

The men were planning to use automatic weapons to shoot soldiers at the Army post, according to a federal law enforcement source and a senior government source.

The men, some of whom were related to each other, had been doing surveillance and planning “for a while,” and they trained in the Poconos Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania, according to the federal law enforcement source.

They played paintball and test-fired weapons, a law enforcement source said.

UPDATE at 5/8/07 8:18:40 am:

The whining begins.

The description of the suspects as “Islamic militants” was causing renewed worry among New Jersey’s Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim men from New Jersey were rounded up and detained by authorities in the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, but none was connected to that plot.

“If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. “But when the government says ‘Islamic militants,’ it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous.

“Don’t equate actions with religion,” he said.

UPDATE at 5/8/07 8:25:10 am:

The New York Times doesn’t even mention the words “Islam” or “Muslims” in their article: 6 Arrested in Plot to Attack Fort Dix.

CAMDEN, N.J., May 8 — Six people have been arrested on allegations of plotting to kill soldiers at a New Jersey army installation, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office said today.

Four of them were born in the former Yugoslavia, one was born in Turkey and one in Jordan, said the spokesman, Greg Reinert.

“Allegedly they wanted to kill as many of the soldiers at Fort Dix as they could,” Mr. Reinert said.

He would not give any further details or say how they would have had access to Fort Dix.

The arrests were made on Monday night in Cherry Hill, N.J., by F.B.I. and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, said a spokesman for the Cherry Hill police, according to the Reuters news agency.

Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office in Newark, said some of the suspects were United States citizens and others were illegal immigrants, Reuters reported.

UPDATE at 5/8/07 8:33:51 am:

East coast bloggers got a head start on this story, and Michelle Malkin has lots of details including the names of the suspects and the official complaints: Terrorist plot in Cherry Hill, NJ;illegal aliens among alleged plotters; a John Doe turned them in;press conference at 2:30pm Eastern;Fort Dix has been a refuge for ethnic Albanians; update: details from the complaint.

UPDATE at 5/8/07 8:35:37 am:

The web’s premier “progressive” site is totally ignoring the story: Daily Kos: State of the Nation.

UPDATE at 5/8/07 8:42:30 am:

Nothing at all on the front page of Daily Kos, but a “diary” worries that the media might connect the plot to militant Islam:

MSNBC just reported that a possible terror plot was foiled in New Jersey. The plot was against Fort Dix. They said the terrorist were going to storm the military base. The terrorist were of Yugoslavian and Albanian descent

This is as much as I know for now but i do hope the Media stresses the Yugoslavian and Albanian descent and the fact it didn’t come from what we consider the Middle-East.