Posted on 08/23/2007 10:26:48 PM PDT by NavyCanDo
PORT ANGELES - A car carrying four men reportedly sped through the U.S. Customs port of entry off the ferry from Victoria on Wednesday night.
The Port Angeles Police Department received a report through the PenCom dispatch center of the car failing to stop for inspection.
The car disembarked off the MV Coho at about 9:20 p.m. after the day's last southbound sailing.
It reportedly raced past the checkpoint so quickly that nobody could determine a license plate number or even the plates' jurisdiction.
The car turned left - or eastbound - onto Railroad Avenue from the port of entry, according to reports.
Police were looking for a four-door gray car or sport utility vehicle with four occupants, possibly Asian, headed east out of Port Angeles, said Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck.
Port Angeles police officers were unable to catch up with the vehicle and alerted the Clallam County Sheriff's Department and State Patrol, Roggenbuck said.
No more information was available Wednesday night. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at the scene declined comment.
Customs officers check all vehicles disembarking the Coho in covered lanes between the ferry landing and Railroad Avenue.
Citizenship verification is done by U.S. officials at the Coho's Black Ball Transport terminal in Victoria before passengers and motorists board the 341-foot ferry.
Terrorist captured in 1999 On Dec. 14, 1999, Customs officers uncovered an al-Qaida-trained Algerian national, Ahmed Ressam, at the same Port Angeles port of entry.
A trunkload of bomb-making materials were found inside the rented sedan he was driving.
Ressam fled on foot, but was quickly captured by customs inspectors in downtown Port Angeles.
Ressam was tried in federal court and found guilty of plotting to blow up a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport with the explosives and gear in the car.
(Excerpt) Read more at peninsuladailynews.com ...
What’s not being said and should be, there ARE camera’s on all Washington State Ferry terminals. Unless every one of the camera’s malfunctioned, which I doubt, the authorities had a photo. I’d bet too, the Victoria terminal has surveillance camera’s.
We won’t have any more Ressam incidents. Every single time I board a ferry a bomb sniffing car checks my car. If the terrorists hit a ferry it will be a suicide bomber wearing the device. They casually watch walk-on passengers only.
The increased border security is play hell with the B.C. bud market! ;)
So why ask why; whenever the next event occurs; why ask 'who or how' in the post mortem; when every day we aid and abett these terrorists and facillitate their agenda by our own damning politically-correct MO. . .
Man, I am happy this fell into my good news section. This could have been bad. They really need to secure the ports of entry.
Note that the geography of Port Angeles is highly susceptible to cordon. There is a narrow strip of roads along the coast which could relatively easily be cordoned off with (if I recall correctly) about 4 or 5 checkpoints.
If the authorities really want(ed) to catch these guys, they could.
Please leave Mr. Chertoff alone. Can't you see he's busy with the ECONOMY???
“If the authorities really want(ed) to catch these guys, they could.”
Read the updates. They were caught.
Yeah, You can take any highway out of there as long as it’s 101.
Could ditch the car in the mountains, but I think they probably had a garage waiting for them in PA. Then switch cars and off to where ever. No idea if these are terrorists, smugglers, run-of-the-mill border jumpers, or just idiots.
Yes, I see they were caught.
I guess they fit my “idiots” category.
Yo FRiend, my statement was purely political — I know there’s a ton of folks out there like you — hell, I live in Boston and get ragged all the time.
But you have a small voice, regionally.
You guys need to get a voice - - as do we.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but consider: How much easier is it for a terrorist to source explosives in Canada and then transport them across the border, with the attendant risks involved in that, than to just get themselves into the US and then source the explosives?
I’d tend more to suspect that they were drug or human smugglers. However, I have also wondered why it is so easy to blow through a customs checkpoint in a vehicle - last time I drove into the US (at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge in Niagara Falls) it occurred to me how easy it would be once the way ahead of me was clear to just floor it and take off up the highway.
In Washington State, "Asian" invariably means Oriental.
Pakistan is part of Asia...
We [America] don't act that way......until its too late and 1,000 to 50,000 fewer American's are around to see us get tough.
Liberals don't like to see assault rifles at airports and ferry terminals.
That's true....at least a couple of days in a good month.
LOL
If it makes anyone feel better, the Nantucket ferry is watched very carefully. Every attractive young female is wanded. Twice.
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