One of the six men accused of plotting an attack on Fort Dix used his pizza delivery job to gain access to the Army base and scout it out, exposing what may be a security vulnerability, a congressman said.
Serdar Tatar, 23, was on the fort's approved list of delivery people and given access to the base as part of his job with a nearby pizzeria run by his father, according to a Fort Dix spokeswoman.
US Republican Chris Smith, whose district includes Fort Dix, said he has long been concerned about who has access to the sprawling Army installation located in the Pinelands region of New Jersey, about 30km east of Philadelphia.
"This whole affair just underscores the vulnerability," Smith said. "You don't know who's on your base. What the pizza delivery man tells me is that when you have access, when you have frequent access, you get the lay of the land, so that if you do a terror attack it will cause that much more damage and loss of life."
The fort considers its policy for screening delivery people adequate for now, but said it could be reviewed in the future, base spokeswoman Carolee Nesbit said.
Before they are cleared to make deliveries at Fort Dix, drivers must register in advance, undergo a criminal background check, and obtain an access pass that has to be reviewed every 30 days.
Drivers who arrive at the military installation's gate are greeted by armed guards, who check their identification and issue a pass. The delivery people are not followed or monitored once they clear security, Nesbit said.
"There are 16,000 people that come through the gates every day," she said. "It's practically impossible to follow everyone."
The FBI said agents foiled a plot to attack the base after the men asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.
The men -- Tatar, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; Eljvir Duka, 23; and Agron Abdullahu, 24 -- appeared in federal court on Tuesday in Camden and were ordered held without bail for a hearing today.
Though it was not clear when the alleged attack was to take place, members of the group were arrested on Monday night as they tried to buy AK-47 assault weapons, M-16s and other weapons from an FBI informant, authorities said.
Shnewer was secretly recorded revealing his intentions to a government informant.
"My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," he was recorded as saying, according to court documents. "This is exactly what we are looking for. You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place [up] and retreat completely without any losses."
Smith said the fort needs to better protect areas along public roads.
"One goal of the jihadists is to hurt and kill as many Americans as possible, and they can certainly do that from one of these roads," he said. "Roads running through military bases are a problem throughout the country."
Nisbet said security is present whenever military personnel are gathered at the fort, even if it is not visible from the road. In addition to the weapons each individual soldier may carry, she said, "There is security on these ranges."
Federal authorities publicized concerns over security at Fort Dix and adjacent McGuire Air Force Base in 2003 when they arrested three dozen base contractors and charged them with using false Social Security numbers to obtain entry badges.
The sweep, called Operation Secured Eagle, was initiated by Pentagon investigators.
"We were just trying to identify, along with the commanders, if there was a problem," said Resident Agent in Charge James Murawski, who oversaw the case for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service in New Jersey.
"I believe they've taken steps to assure security" since then, he said.
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