Coast Guard warns of terrorist threat in Puget Sound

KING-TV Seattle ^ | 6.9.02

[Travis McGee]

Netting is one part of a multi level defense, but is only viable around high value targets. And netting is no use without folks watching and monitoring the approaches and perimeter, or a swimmer or kayaker will slide over it, depending on the type. There is just so much water, and swimmers are so tiny and can pick the minute of attack....

[Travis McGee]

As long as our enemies are hiding among us, they will get us when they want. They are vipers nesting in our clothes.

If we secured every port, airplane, ship, pipeline, chemical plant, etc etc etc etc, they would just take AK-47s into crowded churches, or set 100 forests alight on a single hot dry windy day.

[spyone]

Could be the cruise ships. The Alaska run is very popular with 2 ships leaving Seattle each week and 26 leaving Vancouver.

[hedgetrimmer]

Capitola Police Say Suspicious Devices Were Not Dangerous
Arleen Bolton for KCBS-740 AM
(KCBS) - Suspicious devices that caused police to evacuate several blocks in downtown Capitola Saturday night turned out not to be dangerous after all.

Capitola Police Sergeant Todd Mayer says the devices were actually plastic pipes filled with sand used to keep overhead banners straight. Mayer says unfortunately the ends of the banner weren't sewn up so some of the weights dropped out because of the wind over the last couple of days.

Several of the pipes were spotted around 8:00p.m. Saturday night. People were allowed back into the area around 6:00a.m. Sunday morning.

The banners were set up to promote shopping in the downtown Capitola area.
http://beta.kpix.com/news/local/2002/06/09/Capitola_Police_Say_Suspicious_Devices_Were_Not_Dangerous.html

[willyone]

In Puget Sound the water is cold and murky and the currents due to the extreme tides are too much for any swimmer. It would be far easier to just use a truck bomb or a boat to do damage. The Coast Guard must be trying to enhance it's roll to get more funding.

[RipeforTruth]

In early 1994 I received a request to sign for a tourist visa. The individual was going to go to the east coast and not come to Seattle.

Last year my father-in-law talked to a retired FBI Chief who encouraged me to contact the FBI again. On my behalf, my father-in-law attempted several times to call the FBI and was rebuffed.

[SpinyNorman]

Maybe the simplest solution is to rountinely chum the water around significant targets!! Be about the same as putting marinade on the ba$tards! Be good to have the sharks on our side for once! Anyway to get the killer whales into the act?

[harpseal]

A second to absolutely everything you have said. Now lets talk how noticable a water borne attack would be in say New York or Boston Harbor. I choose these two because I am quite familiar with both. In New York Harbor and Boston Harbor things like refrigerators floating in the harbor are considered normal and no one pays any attention to these. In Yemen a power boat loaded with HE came alongside of the USS Cole detonated and almost sank the ship. Substitute a LNG super tanker for the Cole and a US harbor for the location and you have the equivalent of a Hiroshima type blast. On a summer day in New York Harbor it is almost like rush hour on the water. A Coast Guard 100 times its current size would have a difficult job of providing security.

Kayaks? No one pays any attention to them. Naval Bases do have some security so an attack on one of them may have its difficulties but if the terrorists wishchoose "civilian targets that will damage the USA the number of absolutely inprotected targets is too large to even imagine. As to a scuba borne attack. Rebreathers are unecessary. Who will pay attention to bubbles except at a Navy base. Even then the chances of bubbles being spotted on a breezy day is slim. Yes the USN has counter measures available but outside of US Navy facilities what security is there in the water? hey in New York or Boston Harbor if they do not not wish to use a 55 gallon drum they can substitute a refrigerator. As to swimmers in the water people as a rule don't even call in dead bodies in the water.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Travis McGee]

I keep coming back to the same thought: as long as our enemies are among us, they will be able to cause havoc at the time and place of their choosing.

Tight security in one area just causes them to move to one of the million other unprotected targets.

The key is their motivation, not their weapons, skills, or particular targets. Any former SOF person could take 20 motivated Boy Scouts and spread utter havoc.

[Robert357]

In response to your post 88.

Please see the following post 21 in the following thread (and 14 if you want to see what I told/asked them).

A e-mail response from the Ferry System on my questions about taking firearms onboard

My conclusion is that the State Patrol is being a little more selective than the newspapers are reporting.

[Robert357]

We have no more right to travel on one of those ferries than to walk into a five star restaurant bare footed and bare chested and claim to have a right to eat when the maitre d tosses your butt out the door for not meeting the dress code.

Since I usually enjoy your comments on the California Power Crisis, I am reluctant to point out that the ferry system is something regulated under federal law as a "common carrier." There are lots of requirements on "common carriers" having to do with access to all, no favoritism, and rules to make sure that commerce is fairly served. Based on my limited business law knowledge, there is a huge difference between a "common carrier" and a typical private company.

[Ramius]

Maybe the Hale's Passage Anti-Terror watch can get one of these!

I've been seeing one of those pretty regularly. Zipping back and forth, running all over. The one in the picture looks slighly bigger, with a .50 on the bow. The ones I've seen are maybe a 21ft with what looks like an M60 on the bow. Nifty. If they'd had those before I would've stayed in. Makes me want to join the reserves. :-)

[monkeywrench]

Thanks.

[harpseal]

I agree about the threat always being subject to mutation so that when secuirty comes in one place another place is threatened. The only answer it seems to me is mobilizing the US population in an armned response to these threats.

There is an outstanding threat to Jewish neigborhoods in NYC. A Rabbi there has proposed patrols armed with shotguns to protect those neigborhoods and the Shuls synagogues and schools. What is the policians response? Panic, they say these folks are untrained but the deterent value alone would do wonders for protection and training can be given.

There is a vast resivoir of Vetrans from every war and the inter-war periods of the Twentieth Century who would once again bear arms in defense of their homeland. These men and women have had the training and could train others. No they are not crack troops anymore but they could do a necessary job but since they will be unpaid volunteers the polidiots choose defenselessness instead. How many will have to die because of this idiocy on the politician's part.

Stay well - Stay safe- Stay armed - Yorktown

[Grampa Dave]

My point is that no one rides for free. You pay your fee or don't ride.

I'm sure that if I pulled up with a leaking Propane Delivery Truck, they would not allow me drive it on and park it on one of those ferries if they knew that I had a slow propane leak.

I hope that random searches are used. If one does not want a random search, they don't have to ride the ferry. Same thing applies in our airports. You have a problem with a search, then don't fly!

[Travis McGee]

Our so-called leaders would prefer to see us slaughtered in the thousands than see us forming armed community self protection forces.

[Edmund Burke]

I don't know if they can be regulated as a common carrier since they are not engaged in interstate commerce. With a few exceptions, I think all their ships merely ferry people and vehicles between various locations in the State of Washington. Perhaps Uncle Sam has no jurisdiction? It's not like a trucking company, e.g., Roadway Express.

[Robert357]

The Washington State ferry system has specific ferries that go to Canada throught the San Juan Islands. There are also a ferry connection between Washington and Oregon, although I am not sure if it is part of the Ferry System directly.

I have been riding state ferries since I was born and I am pretty sure they have to follow common carrier requirements.

[jetson]

JUST PUT HILLARY IN A BIKINI AND DRAG HER BEHIND A BOAT...THAT OUGHT TO SCARE ANYTHING OUT OF THE WATER.

[Robert357]

I thought I would add the following, since it seems that there are some really interesting things associated with strange happenings on ferry boats, at least in the SF Bay area. My curiousity, is what has happened in Puget Sound that has been noticed by crews and not reported by our media up here.

SF Bay area Ferries report on middle-easterners using stop watches and video taping equipment on ferry boats