Posted on 02/12/2002 4:43:35 PM PST by notyourregularhandle
BELLINGHAM - The government is warning us all to be vigilant and be on the lookout for anything suspicious.
One Bellingham woman tried to do just that, but her efforts fell on deaf ears.
Sondra Perkins had just spent 10 days in Atlanta. While at Atlanta's airport waiting to board her flight back to Seattle, she noticed someone acting suspiciously.
She said she tried to report the suspicious activity to airport officials, but they did nothing.
It turned out, the man happened to be on her flight back to Seattle. She says she even tried to tip the flight attendants to her observations.
Again, no response.
When she arrived home in Bellingham later that evening, she started looking at newspapers her husband had saved while she was away.
In the Jan. 17 edition of the Bellingham Herald, she spotted five pictures of men the FBI wanted to talk to.
"There he was," she said. "I'm 99.9 percent certain the man I saw was one of the five."
She says she tried yet again to tip airline officials, the FBI, the FAA -- 10 agencies in all.
Finally, she tried the State Department's Rewards for Justice Tip Line, and sent them a photo she had taken of the man while he was on an escalator at Sea-Tac Airport.
The State Department responded, thanking her for her vigilance and expressing concern that her tip had not received more immediate attention.
Perkins called it "extremely frustrating when all you are trying to do is respond to calls to be vigilant and trying to help the American people."
The Whatcom County Sheriff's office in Bellingham, a city not far from the Canadian border, suggested that anyone who sees suspicious activities go to the FBI Web site and use the Tipline. Or, if they don't have a computer, contact their local law-enforcement agency.
Perkins said she has her own idea.
"What the FBI should do is establish is a single (phone) number nationwide which it can post at airports," she said.
Perkins admits, she could be wrong about the man she saw in Atlanta and who sat on the same flight she took back to Seattle. He may turn out not to be a terrorist.
But she said the whole incident points up the need for a better system by which people can talk to the government and report what they saw.
Maybe Al Queda does not have enough people for creating wide-spread panic and FBI is trying to help a bit?
It seems that way...!!! ;)
Government workers = Buffoons!
Sondra Perkins had just spent 10 days in Atlanta. While at Atlanta's airport waiting to board her flight back to Seattle, she noticed someone acting suspiciously.I *gotta* believe that there is MORE to this story - we have ONLY heard one side so far ...She said she tried to report the suspicious activity to airport officials, but they did nothing.
She took a photo of the guy, and they did what? There is something really wrong about this story...I think this needs to be verified. I've got to fly next week and I'm getting really concerned the gov is without a doubt totally cockeyed on security.
Except, we don't need no steenkin' feds watching over us...
And we're supposed to take them seriously?
She must have been very uncomfortable to have taken a picture.
Perhaps one of these bureaucrats will actually look at it.
I agree, that's the moral of the story. If this were disinformation, I would hardly think it would be planted on KOMO TV for national dissemination.
Pretty frightening thought, huh? And this after the FBI has reorganized to become the "terrorist specialists." What a joke.......
LOL...My point exactly...!!!
This isn't true, the FBI continued searching for another day or two, and then resumed looking for male whites between the ages of 25 and 55 that failed to pay enough money on their income taxes.
Maybe! caaaan the fed take a look at the picture? aren't they interested?
I agree. And Atlanta just had something going on the other day at the airport there.....what about that? Just another coincidence? I'm not saying it's related, but then the FBI has this hightened alert.....the terrorists are running around our country, checking things out, testing what they can get away with, "casing the place" first, then they'll strike again. God help the next place.
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