Posted on 10/11/2004 9:28:25 PM PDT by garjog
SEATTLE (AP) - Federal authorities believe Washington state's ferry system has been under surveillance and could be a possible target for a terrorist attack, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.
An FBI assessment determined that 19 suspicious incidents reported by law enforcement officers, ferry workers and passengers since the Sept. 11 attacks were highly likely or extremely likely to involve terrorist surveillance, the Times reported.
"We may well be the target of preoperational terrorist planning," said U.S. Attorney John McKay.
McKay and other security officials said the assessment helped prompt new security requirements that began Saturday on the Washington ferries, the nation's largest ferry system.
Suspicious incidents included individuals asking questions about ferry operations or taking photos of stairwells, car decks and workers, according to a document obtained by the Times.
A man who is a subject of an FBI terrorism investigation allegedly was involved in three incidents: one two days after the 2001 attacks in which he allegedly videotaped an oil refinery, a bridge and Navy flight operations; another involving the videotaping of a ferry's car deck in September 2003; and a third the following day in which a ferry was videotaped as it was loaded and unloaded.
More than 1,000 people ride a single ferry, but I am more concerned about gas, a dirty bomb or something on a ferry. Sinking a ferry is bad, but using the ferry as a platform from which to blow up something that would filter to the city would be really nasty.
Kill the terrorists. Keep killing them until they're all dead.
Not only is the Ferry System being targeted by terrorists, but also the "famous" Space Needle. Of course Senator Murray believes that they are only here to see how we build our "daycare centers" to improve theirs to when they return to the Middle East. This is a necessity because the women in the Middle East did not have time to take care of their children due to their job responsibilities. (/sarcasm>.
They're targeting WA because they will enter friendly territory and will have excellent possiblities for recruitment, then they will have more allies to fight their wars against the rest of the United States. Remember Boeing is not just a passenger plane maker. It makes tons of fighter jets, tankers, and state-of-the-art technology in the aerospace industry. they could use these planes as missiles on the rest of America.
Personally, I think we should kill them below the "nuisance" level.....way below the nuisance level, John.....like down to zero incidents!
And while we are at it John, lets re-educate about 200,000 million people as to their future if they think about re-instituting a program of terror.....ever!
Given the way the Seattle press hyper-bloviates every toe-stubbing and missing cat, I can't say I'd but any credence in this story.
I dare you to come here and say that.....It's far worse than France!
On second thought...to make a comment like that, you probably live here!! [;>]
She'd just go to one of the day-care-centers that she thinks Osama bin Laden has built!
But, its the FBI that is giving the warning. And I didn't find this in any of the Seattle area media. Maybe it will show up Tuesday.
I wonder why the idiot "civilized" people in Washington state support a guy like Kerry, when he fails to take the threat from barbarians seriously. I wonder the same thing about New York. New York was attacked TWICE (the WTC was first attacked in 1993), and the majority of New Yorkers still support Kerry.
What's the reason for that? I just don't get it.
but using the ferry as a platform from which to blow up something that would filter to the city would be really nasty.
Think docked nuclear sub with or without nuclear SLBMs very close by. Simple ramming will do the job. How do you counter?
The Seattle Times broke the story yesterday in the Sunday paper.
There were scattered reports for months after 9/11 of middle easterners quietly surveilling the ferry system, among other places. I think we Puget Sounders all pretty much assumed that the ferries have been cased out since then and that they are on al Qaida's target list as a possibility.
But it's good to see that the FBI actually was following up when citizens reported the activity.
One great thing about WA is that many of us are armed, unlike defenseless New Yorkers. If a Moo is getting out of line, hopefully somebody will kill him before he can do damage.
At least the odds are better. Bad guys here tend to get lead poisoning.
You don't know the geography around here, do you?
There are no WA ferry routes anywhere near the Bangor sub bases. In fact, I can think of only two ferry routes that even cross the paths that subs take in/out of port. Plus, subs are now escorted by armed Navy surface patrol ships once they surface and enter the Strait.
A ferry is not going to ram a sub; don't put that into the Paranoia Plan.
Hmmm... Japanese love regular cameras, maybe Muslims just really like video cameras...
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