Posted on 08/31/2007 10:46:24 PM PDT by mdittmar
Earlier this summer a concerned crew member of a Washington State ferry boat snapped pictures of two men who had raised suspicions on several ferry rides by asking questions about structural details and entering areas of the boats that are off limits.
Now, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation released two photographs of the men to the public with the goal of identifying them, a debate has erupted over alleged racial profiling, one ferry was shut down briefly this week and the men, while suddenly familiar faces, remain unidentified.
"We have some promising leads that have come in since we published the pictures," said Larry Carr, a special agent with the Seattle field office of the F.B.I. The agency released the images on Monday.
The pictures show two men with dark hair and olive skin standing beside a ferry deck railing overlooking the water. Their hands are in their pockets. Their eyes look toward the camera. In a statement released that day, the agency said the men had "exhibited unusual behavior." The behavior "may have been innocuous," the agency said, but law enforcement "would like to resolve these reports."
The F.B.I. has emphasized that the men are not suspects in a crime and that no threats have been made to the ferry system. But two days after the pictures were released, one ferry, the Puyallup, was shut down for an hour at the main Seattle terminal. Officials said an object found in a men's bathroom during a routine security sweep prompted the action. The object turned out not to be dangerous, and it was not linked to the two men. . .
Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and an attendee at the Thursday meeting, said, "We didn't come out of the meeting feeling more hopeful." Mr. Bukhari said releasing the photographs implied some kind of guilt and "mobilized the wrong kind of people to look for" the men. "It raises the fear factor," he said.
cair-WA: Release of Ferry Photos Raises ‘Fear Factor’
if they sank the ferry....the lib/dems would have blamed jorge bush and homeland security for not protecting the US!!!
who cares what cair thinks and states???
They could be hispanic just as easily.
Bottom line, it was not their race, but their BEHAVIOR that caused the pictures to be taken and distributed.
We better learn that or suffer the consequences.
For those that sarcastically ask why we randomly screen everyone, regardless of race, here are some pictures of Muslims that tried to kill people or actually killed people....
“mobilized the wrong kind of people to look for” the men.
who are the “right kind of people”?
Wrong. If you have seen the photos you would know that they were Middle Easteners. There is no mistaking it. Speaking of bottom line, everyone should view Middle Easteners suspiciously, though not reporting them every time. They have earned that suspiciousness.
The Mayors asleep.
The Governor is asleep.
The Police are asleep.
97.5% of the Populous is asleep.
This is a liberal paradise and as long as we don't make the Muslims mad, nothing will ever happen - they just want to live in peace like the rest of us. [/sarcasm]
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