POSTED: 6:01 am PDT September 29, 2004
UPDATED: 3:51 pm PDT September 29, 2004
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington state is making plans for random vehicle searches in state ferry lines to meet tougher federal security precautions, state officials told The Associated Press.
State transportation chief Doug MacDonald said Tuesday the random searches are "possible and even likely," beginning Oct. 9 as a way to satisfy new Coast Guard mandates for better screening for explosives or other terrorist paraphernalia.
The nation's largest ferry system carries 26 million passengers a year over 20 routes.
The state apparently won't have enough specially trained "sniffer dogs" by Oct. 9 to meet the new standard, said state patrol's deputy chief, Glenn Cramer, and Gov. Gary Locke's chief of staff, Tom Fitzsimmons.
Excerpted
City Council Aide, Imam Indicted
September 29, 2004 — Federal prosecutors fighting what they've called a "culture of corruption" at City Hall took aim at seven new targets Wednesday, including a city council aide, a mayoral aide, and a politically connected imam.
The charges revolved around the activities of Shamsud-din Ali, the leader of an influential Philadelphia mosque known for his close ties to city Democrats, including Gov. Ed Rendell and Mayor John F. Street.
In a 122-page indictment, a federal grand jury accused Ali of overseeing a criminal enterprise that capitalized on those political friendships.
Among the charges, prosecutors said Ali extorted money from city vendors and paid a kickback to obtain a lucrative city contract for which he did no work, and improperly had a small company he owned installed as a partner in a business deal with the city's airport.
In many cases, U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said, Ali was able to get what he wanted because people believed he had the ear of top city officials, and the power to get what he wanted from city government.
"This enterprise used political influence as leverage and access to people in high places as a hammer," Meehan said. "This organization wrapped its tentacles around individuals, institutions, government entities or whomever it targeted as a source of profit, and simply applied pressure when necessary."
Charged along with Ali were Steven A. Vaughn, chief of staff to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, and John Christmas, an aide to Street's chief of staff.
Prosecutors said the pair helped a company owned by Ali get a $60,595 payment from the city for what was supposed to have been its help collecting delinquent real estate taxes. Investigators said that in reality, the company was not involved in collecting the taxes.
Vaughn is additionally accused of accepting a $2,000 kickback from Ali as a prize for his effort. FBI agents used hidden cameras to record the meeting in 2001 when Vaughn allegedly accepted the payment from Ali.
Vaughn publicly denied the kickback allegations when they were first reported in newspapers last winter. His attorney, Michael Giampietro, said the videotapes purporting to show the alleged payment are "open to interpretation."
Ali's attorney, James Binns, did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday. In previous interviews, he has claimed that the government is persecuting him because he is Muslim.
Christmas' attorney, Charles J. Grant, also did not immediately return a phone call.
Also charged in the indictment was a manager at AAT Communications, a company that won city approval to install cellular phone antennas at Philadelphia International Airport. Prosecutors said he accepted $7,000 in kickbacks from Ali in exchange for making the imam's company a no-work partner in the antenna deal.
The charges were the third wave of indictments in an investigation that became public last October when police discovered an FBI bug in Street's City Hall office.
The city's former treasurer was charged in June with accepting cash and gifts from people seeking to influence city business decisions.
Others charged previously include executives at financial services firms, a lawyer who raised money for Street's campaigns, and Ali's wife, Faridah, who was accused of defrauding a community college adult education program run out of rented space at a religious school affiliated with her husband's mosque.
Those charges were repeated in the new indictment on Wednesday.
Neither Street nor Miller were accused of any wrongdoing, and both have previously denied any knowledge of subordinates engaging in influence peddling in their names.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/092904_nw_probeindictments.html
Ferry searches should be mandatory. We've ferried to Canada several times (destination Victoria BC) and watched backpackers freely enter and exit, heaven only knowing what was in those backpacks. Also a little frightening driving your car onto one not knowing if another vehicle aboard it is loaded with explosives or weapons. Someone could have skindiving equipment with them and jump overboard and detonate after they have cleared the immediate area. Skindiver training has its possibilities with both ferries and cruise ships. Once on board, they have a captive target group.