FORT DIX, N.J., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- A defendant in the plot to shoot up the entrance to the U.S. Army base at Fort Dix, N.J., says he has a big mouth.
Mohamad Shnewer made the observation in a letter he sent to the judge who will sentence him and his four co-defendants to possible life sentences in April.
The Philadelphia Inquirer said Wednesday that Shnewer told U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler in the Jan. 19 letter he was regretful that he had uttered inflammatory statements and that the jury had made a mistake in taking them seriously.
"As for myself, yes I said what was on the record, but I didn't mean any of it," Shnewer wrote. "My political views aren't popular ones, but
they're my views and I have the right to have and express them."
Shnewer, 23, was the lead defendant in the case that federal investigators contended was a serious plot to open fire on cars entering the New Jersey base.
The Inquirer noted none of the defendants testified at the trial and Shnewer's letter, which was released by the court, offered the first public look at their version of the story.
