Greg Ellifritz warns of terrorists in uniform:
Most recently, we saw terrorists wearing uniforms during the October 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Several groups of terrorists wore green fatigue uniforms similar to those worn by the Israeli Defense Forces.
That wasn’t the first time. Here is a brief list of worldwide terrorist and active killer attacks where the perpetrator(s) wore uniforms of some type.
- In 2003, at least 76 Al-Qaeda operatives conducted a series of suicide bombing attacks in Istanbul, Turkey. Some were dressed as police officers.
- In 2004, some of the terrorists involved in the Beslan school attack wore police and military uniforms during their assault on the school.
- In 2008, some of the terrorists involved in the Mumbai, India attacks wore Indian security forces uniforms.
- In 2011, the killer/bomber in Oslo, Norway wore a home made police uniform to facilitate his attack.
- In 2013 a US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey was attacked by a suicide bomber. How did the bomber get past security? He was dressed as a mailman and was carrying an envelope.
- In 2014, Iraqi suicide bombers dressed as the police.
- In 2015, A terrorist cell was apprehended in Belgium. They had Belgian police uniforms, explosives, and rifles. The terrorists were going to dress as cops, bomb police stations, and shoot citizens in the street.
- In 2015, kidnappers attempted to abduct a woman in South Africa while wearing police uniforms.
- In 2020, the Texas Walmart active killer was wearing a uniform shirt with a badge.
Why uniforms? In a crisis, people wearing uniforms aren’t generally questioned. If a bomb goes off or a terrorist starts shooting, every cop and fireman for miles around will be responding. No one will be looking at what type of uniform someone is wearing as long as he appears like he is helping out.
The uniform gives people access to areas into which they would be denied entrance if they were dressed in normal clothing. Think about terrorists wanting to detonate a secondary device to kill a large number of police and fire personnel at a bomb scene. Would any cops on the perimeter of a bombing incident stop a person in a paramedic uniform running up to the scene with a large first aid bag?
Nope. And that bag might be filled with C-4 and nails instead of bandages. I can’t think of a better way to kill a lot of cops and firemen.
How do terrorists get police uniforms? It’s easy. They steal them.
I have a friend who worked on an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in one of the largest cities in the USA. His unit investigated regular burglaries of dry cleaning businesses for years. In these burglaries, the only items taken were police uniforms that officers had dropped off for cleaning. This has been happening for almost 20 years and you don’t hear a thing about it in the media. We’re ripe for an attack of this nature.
The most subversive and dangerous terrorists in uniform are the “legitimate” ones.
A relative of mine told me that in WW2, there were so many uniforms being worn in London by both UK and overseas forces that when one guy dressed himself in a German uniform and wandered around no-one took any notice.
I have to assume that decision, to wear a German uniform in WW2 London, was arrived at in a pub — either on a dare or after losing a bet.
There’s a uniform supply store not far from me. They sell uniforms to match several local PDs, the county, and state police, as well as for various security guard agencies. They will sell them to anyone.
You can also buy uniforms from various internet sources, including eBay and Amazon. You can also buy light bars, whip antennas,cockpit divider screens, gun or radio mounts, and PIT bars for your older full-size car or modern SUV.
Couple that with waaayyy too many “Law Enforcement Officers” who aren’t policemen – bailiffs, truant officers, code enforcement goons, etc. (depending on your local jurisdiction) and telling whether someone is legit or not is difficult.
TRX says:
And since FBI crowd obviously should know this, the referred article is a part of some smoke-and-mirrors initiative.
T. Beholder says:
“And since FBI crowd obviously should know this, the referred article is a part of some smoke-and-mirrors initiative.”
Why, yes, it would seem that the FBI is indeed aware of this, since the article itself mentions the FBI investigating theft of uniforms from dry cleaners.
The Ellifritz article isn’t written for the FBI, it is written to make the average Joe aware of the possibility, and give useful info that may help spot an impostor. There is publicly available antiterrorism training which mentions terrorists wearing uniforms, but only in passing, without providing tools for picking out the fakes.
I’ve been reading Ellifritz long enough to suspect anyone accusing him of smoke-and-mirrors is engaging in that himself.
Jim R.