Clerk whose tip led to terror-plot arrests tells his story

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. —  An electronics store clerk credited with providing the tip that broke up an alleged plot to kill soldiers at Ft. Dix went public Tuesday.

Brian Morgenstern said he was alarmed when he watched the video that two men brought him to have transferred to a DVD, but also worried about invading the customers’ privacy.

“I was considering whether or not this was really a threat, or something serious,” he told The Associated Press. “I came to the conclusion that that’s not my job or decision to make.”

After three weeks of being hailed as an anonymous hero by law enforcement and on newspaper editorial pages, he came forward with a series of media interviews Tuesday, the first on CNN’s “American Morning.”

Morgenstern, a clerk at a Circuit City store, described how two men brought him a videotape to transfer to DVD in January 2006.

He said he went home that night and told his family what he had seen: Ten men at a firing range with handguns, rifles and what he thought were fully automatic rifles. He said authorities had asked him not to divulge some details of the video. But authorities later said the men were chanting “God is Great” in Arabic.

Morgenstern did not know if he should breach the privacy of the customers, who seemed like ordinary guys. He wasn’t even paying full attention to the video until he saw things that were troubling.

The next day, he said, he talked to his managers at the store, then called police, sparking the investigation that led to the arrests of six men accused of plotting to attack Ft. Dix.