How clerk played key role to expose Fort Dix terror plot

By Wayne Parry
The Associated Press

FORT DIX, N.J. — Ever since Sept. 11, U.S. authorities have asked the public to be vigilant, urging, "If you see something, say something."

In January 2006, a store clerk in New Jersey saw something.

A group of men had brought him a video showing them firing assault weapons and chanting "God is great!" in Arabic. They wanted him to dub the footage to a DVD.

So the clerk called the Mount Laurel Police Department, which in turn contacted the FBI.

As a result, six men from Yugoslavia and the Middle East were charged Tuesday with plotting to slaughter scores of American soldiers at Fort Dix and perhaps other military installations in the Northeast.

FBI agent J.P. Weis saluted the unidentified Mount Laurel store clerk as the "unsung hero" of the case.

The suspects' images and words were captured on more than 50 audio and video recordings. Their comings and goings were recorded by law-enforcement agents who monitored the alleged plot for 15 months, hoping more terror ties would become apparent.

The defendants, all men in their 20s, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out Fort Dix. They sought "to kill as many American soldiers as possible" in attacks with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns, prosecutors said.

"Today we dodged a bullet. In fact, when you look at the type of weapons that this group was trying to purchase, we may have dodged a lot of bullets," Weis said.

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