“Tatar may have also wanted to join the Army … A second suspect in the case told the informant that Tatar wanted to join the Army so he could kill soldiers from the ‘inside’.” Fort Dix Jihad Update. By Geoff Mulvihill for the Associated Press:
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – One of the men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix had recently applied to be a police officer in two big cities “” a move some authorities believe may have been an effort to infiltrate law enforcement agencies.
How many more Serdar Tatars might there be across America? Infiltrators among first responders to an attack would increase casualties, delay the work of other responders, and would significantly augment the psychological impact of the attack.
Serdar Tatar, 23, applied for a job in Philadelphia last month, police spokesman Sgt. D.F. Pace said Wednesday.
“Based on what we know now, I don’t think his intentions were good,” Pace said.
Tatar also applied for a job in the Oakland, Calif., Police Department, according to a law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
[…]
Philadelphia police rejected Tatar, a Turkish citizen and legal U.S. resident, because he was not a U.S. citizen and had not lived in the city long enough to be eligible, Pace said. Tatar had lived there for about eight months when he applied, less than the
city’s one-year requirement.
He applied at a police job fair on April 10.
It isn’t known when or where Tatar applied to join the Oakland police force or why he would try to join an organization thousands of miles away.
Tatar may have also wanted to join the Army, according to conversations recorded in March by an FBI informant during the investigation. A second suspect in the case told the informant that Tatar wanted to join the Army so he could kill soldiers from the “inside,” according to a court filing.
“He had only one mind,” a third suspect, Dritan Duka, told the informant, according to the court documents. “How to kill American soldiers.”
Army spokesman Lenny Gatto said Wednesday that he did not know whether Tatar had applied to join the Army, which does not require U.S. citizenship.
Tatar, an out-of-work clerk whose last job was at a Philadelphia convenience store, and five others were arrested May 7 and charged with planning an attack on Fort Dix, which is 25 miles east of Philadelphia and is primarily used to train reservists.