The Reward of Being Vigilant

Based on this report in the Tennessean, I expect that this video store clerk will be sued by the Fort Dix Six, but it is a wonderful demonstration of what citizens, average, everyday people, can do in the war on terror:

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 transfer the footage onto a DVD.

So he said something, calling the Mount Laurel Police Department, which in turn contacted the FBI.

And thus began the downfall of one of the most thoroughly infiltrated and documented groups of terrorism suspects in recent history — six men from Yugoslavia and the Middle East who 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.

Kudos to the clerk.

Via Besty's page