FORT STEWART, Ga. - iWATCH is a nation-wide, modern version of the highly-successful Neighborhood Watch Program designed to encourage and enable members of every community to help protect their community by identifying and reporting suspicious behavior that is known to be associated with terrorist activities.

There are two key elements to iWATCH. The passive element is to educate the community to identify suspicious activity and be aware of what is going on around them; the active element is taking action to report suspicious behavior to local law enforcement for further investigation.

Many of the most successful recent terrorist investigations began with a telephone call to local police by people like you who saw something suspicious and reported it.

The Fort Dix (N.J.) Six investigation began with a telephone call from a video store clerk, and ended with the FBI arrest of six terrorist plotters before they could act. The arrest of Robert Alberg, who planned to manufacture Ricin, a deadly agent, began with a telephone call from a clerk at a seed store. Recently, the arrest of the Times Square bomber began when a street vendor reported the rapid departure of a man from an SUV parked illegally. All of these attacks could have been deadly had not citizens acted on their feelings.

The Directorate of Emergency Services needs your help in identifying suspicious behavior to prevent a terrorist attack from occurring on our installation. So far, the iWATCH hotline has received more than 30 telephone calls reporting suspicious activities, all of which were followed up by investigators from the Directorate of Emergency Services. With the upcoming holidays and all the associated special events, our installations, air terminals, and shopping malls offer easy targets for terrorists.

In the next few months, you will see more updates about iWATCH on Marne TV, in The Frontline, on our message boards and on posters in the public areas. You will see antiterrorism personnel passing out flyers detailing suspicious activities and how to report them. We ask that you keep these flyers in your homes near the telephone or on your refrigerator so the numbers are handy.

Eight signs of terrorism

Aca,!Ac Surveillance - Recording or monitoring activities, taking pictures, making drawings.

Aca,!Ac Elicitation - Attempts to gain information about operations, staffing, and security.

Aca,!Ac Tests of Security - Any attempts to measure reaction times to entering restricted areas.

Aca,!Ac Acquiring Supplies - Obtaining explosives, weapons, uniforms, badges, credentials, etc.

Aca,!Ac Suspicious (or Out of Place) Persons - This may include people who are in places they should not be, as well as people who do not fit in to the daily routine of your community.

Aca,!Ac Dry or Trial Run - Putting people into position and moving them around without actually committing a terrorist act.

Aca,!Ac Deploying Assets - People and supplies getting into position to commit an act.

Aca,!Ac Funding - Suspicious transactions involving large amounts of cash and criminal activity.

To report suspicious activities, call the Fort Stewart iWATCH Hotline at 912-767-2822 or 912-767-4895. If you feel it is an emergency, call 911. On Hunter Army Airfield, call 912-315-6133. All iWATCH reports will be investigated by the Directorate of Emergency Services or local police.