A subtle distinction

The New York Times has an article by Paul von Zielbauer about the Fort Dix defendants:

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted five men of conspiracy to kill American soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year, but acquitted them of attempted murder. The jury deliberated for six days before returning its verdict against three brothers— Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka— and two other defendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar. The men, all Muslim immigrants who lived in Philadelphia’s southern New Jersey suburbs, face a maximum of life in prison.
Federal prosecutors said that the five men were planning to attack Fort Dix and the military personnel within it, and had taken concrete steps to train and arm themselves. During the men’s trial, prosecutors argued that evidence, including hundreds of secretly taped conversations between the defendants and FBI informants, jihadist propaganda videos recovered from one suspect’s computer, and videotapes of an illegal purchase of several machine guns, showed they intended to carry out an armed assault on the base.
Defense lawyers argued that the men were never serious about attacking Fort Dix, and that the government informants repeatedly coaxed the men into making incendiary comments on government wiretaps. Defense lawyers also hammered at the credibility of the informants. One is an Egyptian-born illegal immigrant on probation for bank fraud; the other has been paid about $150,000 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for making the secret recording.
The five men were arrested in May 2007 after one of the government’s informants secretly videotaped them paying $1,400 for seven machine guns in the informant’s apartment, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Investigators later found videos found on one defendant’s computer that showed clips of dead American soldiers and kidnapping victims about to be beheaded.

Rico says they're doomed... (But he wonders why no charges on the machine gun purchase? That's a Federal crime, as well as one in New Jersey. And only $200 apiece? Rico asks: where does he pay his money and get one?)