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 ...
BUMP
The report really don’t tell a hill of beans.
Oh for pity sakes! How did the American government become so STUPID!???
In this same Washington State there are multiple cameras that take 16 photos of each LICENSE PLATE crossing the new bridge so they don’t get cheated out of a toll...
The Seattle Post “Intelligencer” (that will be the day) newspaper refuses to print the pictures of 2 oddly behaving men, but DID have a Haiku contest to describe the bad FBI that asked them to do such an outrageous thing...
I need an adult beverage and a break from WA! ;)
a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection, said the group - all American citizens - blah blah blah
American "citizen" has less meaning now than before IMHO. I think British and Netherland citizens would understand my meaning...
You do have an excellent point. :-) However I argue that they will probably take easy targets and maybe integrate more difficult targets as well for impact reasons. When one is trying to kill Americans, even friends are subject to death. For heck sake, these are people that take their own lives. Why should they care about the lives of their allies? Until Seattle and Portland become completely Muslim they are at risk.
I think this is a fairly bogus story. Someone has taken a bare fabric of truth...and stretched it a long way.
Update at Post #40
Thanks for the warm fuzzies... my hubby works there.
Why we're not photographing - up close and personal every US entrant, fingerprinting them and detailed travel plans, exit time, etc, etc. is beyond me. Arrghh! One car trunk could hold everything necessary for a real dirty bomb, bioweapon, etc.
Luckily it only takes 5 years for the CIA to look up its own skirts to discover that no one was really at fault or at least responsible for the pre-911 screwups. Now they can investigate this little breach ... maybe ICE, the TSA and the other alphabets will pull their thumbs out someday. Me, I am not holding my breath. :-(
I would wager that the "federal" contact "after midnight" at the Port Angels hotel involved surveillance and armed confrontation of the "four." I would also wager that the impounding of the vehicle, involved a fairly detailed search prior to their deciding to release it.
I think that this story has a lot to be read between the lines.
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