Posted on 04/21/2005 5:18:10 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
NORFOLK — The Navy is investigating how a man managed to get on board the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman without authorization while the Norfolk-based ship was visiting Britain on April 9.
The Truman’s security force discovered the intruder while in port at a naval base in Portsmouth, in southern England; British police removed him.
"After his discovery, the ship’s security conducted a search of surrounding areas and found no suspicious packages or damage," said Cmdr. Dave Werner, a spokesman for the 2nd Fleet here.
While the ship, which returns to Norfolk on Monday, had not been open for public visits, crew members were allowed to bring a limited number of guests aboard, Werner said.
The man, who was identified in a British newspaper as Abdoul Masmoud Yessoufou, was arrested again less than 24 hours later after he attempted to re-enter the naval base, according to the British Telegraph in a story Thursday. Yessoufou has since been banned from entering restricted areas of the base, public ferryboat areas and Southampton International Airport.
He previously had been convicted of entering restricted areas at London’s Heathrow Airport three times in February, the newspaper reported.
Both British and U.S. authorities are investigating, Werner said.
Thought it might be kind of interesting to some.
He sounds like a complete nut-job. Or else he's doing recon for terrorists. Or maybe both.
Cockroaches............They're everywhere.
They should have thrown in him in the brig on the H.S. Truman and held him for the FBI to speak with.
Its too bad they just didnt set sail and go out a few hundred miles....walk the plank!!
A probe?
This should be taken extremely seriously, what does this say about how well we secure our aircraft carriers in port?
ping
Maybe they should have let him think he made it to see where he went or who he talked to.
I wonder if someone invited him onboard? Do they log visitors like this?
Maybe the security detail was not even looking for the right things. The guy's been trying to get into every nook and cranny at Heathrow- but the Navy might consider keeping him off ships altogether because a terrorist might not need to plant "suspicious packages" or "do damage to equipment or the ship" to be effective:
Ricin terror gang 'planned to unleash terror on the Heathrow Express' The Daily Telegraph UK ^ | April 17, 2005 | David Bamber
Posted on 04/17/2005 8:40:49 PM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
A poison attack planned by al-Qa'eda-trained operatives was aimed at the busy Heathrow Express rail link and would have been "our September 11", the Metropolitan Police has revealed.
A plot to bring death and terror to the country was disclosed last week after Kamel Bourgass, 32, an Islamic extremist from Algeria, was convicted at the Old Bailey and jailed for 17 years.
Senior Whitehall officials have told The Telegraph that Bourgass and some of his associates intended to target the busy rail link between central London and Heathrow Airport. The plan was to place ricin, a fast-acting and potentially lethal home-made poison, on hand rails and in lavatories on the trains.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If ricin is that potent you could do a lot of damage just smeaing it on easily accessible racks and even more so on 'tween decks ladders on a carrier.
You've made a connection here that I don't think even the higher ups may have thought of...maybe you ought to fire up an email with this info to the WH (and Dept of Navy, or Naval Intellignce (?) or to Donald Rumsfeld).
Wonder if they even got this guy's finger prints, because sometimes they (FBI) can still be sloppy at what they are suppose to do best.
I was going to post one version of this this A.M., but the web site I was going to post had registration requireed, etc. I thought that someone would get around to posting this sooner or later.
This type of situation needs to be watched very carefully and thoroughly investigated, with an eye to prevention for similar future scenarios. A basic breach or compromise in basic, elemental perimeter security should be "frowned upon" to put it politely. We can not afford to have a potential repeat of a USS Cole disaster, or maybe even worse.
Banned from restricted areas? That redundant restriction is a bit redundant.
I have a feeling that some officer's Naval career will be over as soon as he's finished his tour in Northern Labrador.
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