Yes, they talked tough, fired guns and watched jihadist videos.
But the five young Muslim men accused of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix may not have been guilty of anything more than youthful braggadocio and poor judgment.
That was the verdict rendered by Muslim leaders immediately after the men were convicted of conspiracy in U.S. District Court in Camden.
"It seemed to me as if the case was pretty flimsy," said James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba who was arrested in 2003 and charged with mishandling classified material and other crimes in a suspected espionage ring. Criminal charges were later dropped against him.
"It seems like these guys under normal circumstances weren't going to do anything until a government informant initiates contact with them and incites them," said Yee.
"All of this doesn't help build trust with the American Muslim community, and that is vital if our law enforcement is going to fight terrorism," he said. "If anyone can improve security, it's our community, but we need to be seen as trusted partners, not potential suspects."
Mohamed Younes, president of the Paterson, N.J.-based American Muslim Union, voiced similar sentiments.
"I don't think they actually mean to do anything," he said. "I think they were acting stupid, like they thought the whole thing was a joke. They don't look like the type of people to do something like this."
Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, attended five days of testimony during the trial.
"Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment," he said. "From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant."
During the eight-week trial, the government relied heavily on information gathered by the informants, who infiltrated the group and secretly recorded hundreds of conversations.
The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel. But they were acquitted of attempted murder, after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack and did not necessarily have a specific plan. Four were also convicted of weapons charges.
The defendants were: Jordanian-born cab driver Mohamad Shnewer; Turkish-born convenience store clerk Serdar Tatar; and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, who had a roofing business.
A sixth man arrested and charged only with gun offenses pleaded guilty earlier.
Fuat "Mike" Mamo of Cresskill said the Albanian community in New Jersey is ashamed of the three Albanian brothers who were convicted.
"I don't know what they were thinking," Mamo said of the Duka brothers. "They were just out of their mind and they should be put away for life. The Albanian community is nothing like this.
"We come from a country that has a reputation for religious diversity and tolerance. To go against the American government -- that's unacceptable to our community."
Sues said the case turned on the legal definition of conspiracy, which he said proved to be far broader than he thought.
"The evidence showed there was no real, honest-to-God planning for an attack on Fort Dix," he said. "The defendants were never all in a room at one time with a map of the fort, plotting what they were going to do."
