From the Seattle Times, :
Groups of men, including one tied to a federal terrorism investigation, have videotaped Washington ferry operations, prompting federal authorities to conclude the system has been under surveillance as a possible target for an attack.U.S. Attorney John McKay, officials in the U.S. Coast Guard and other members of Seattle's Joint Terrorism Task Force all share in that conclusion.
"We may well be the target of preoperational terrorist planning," McKay said.
A confidential FBI assessment of the threat to the state ferries is partly behind an increase in security for large-capacity ferries nationwide, McKay and others say.
The state ferry system is the nation's largest, carrying 26 million passengers last year. It began implementing new security requirements — including tripling the number of cars screened for explosives — this weekend.
For its assessment, the FBI gathered 157 incidents on or near ferries that law-enforcement officers, ferry workers and passengers have reported as suspicious since Sept. 11, 2001. The Seattle Times obtained a document detailing those incidents.
The agency ranked the incidents according to the perceived threat, with most deemed a low or moderate risk. Many involved reports of passengers who appeared to be Middle Eastern and were simply using a camera or cellphone. Other reports gave such little detail that they were difficult to investigate.
But the FBI determined 19 incidents were highly likely or extremely likely to involve terrorist surveillance of the ferries, with individuals asking probing questions about ferry operations or taking photos of stairwells, car decks and workers going about their jobs.
Three incidents involve one man who is a known subject in an FBI terrorism investigation.
Law-enforcement officials have heard about the ferry system's security shortcomings from other sources as well.
Some places to find news or background information about Islam, terrorism and related subjects:
http://www.apostatesofislam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=661
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://humanrightswatch.org/
http://www.wluml.org/english/
http://www.siteinstitute.org/
http://www.globalsecurity.org/
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/
http://ctstudies.com/
http://www.freedomhouse.org/
http://www.uscirf.com/
http://www.dhimmi.com/
http://www.wwrn.org/
http://www.forum18.org/
http://www.indexonline.org/
http://www.citizenlab.org/
http://www.rsf.org/
http://unix.dfn.org/
http://www.ifex.org/en
http://www.iabolish.com/
http://www.stopstoningnow.com/
http://www.cis.org/
http://www.techreview.com/
Remember the principle -- use both your enemies strengths and weaknesses. We've been surveilled for decades inside out and upside down. They know more facts about us than we do ourselves.
There are other things besides facts. Will these facts help them to suceed?Certainly they have access to surveys, sociological and psychological studies, and so on. They have gained inroads in our universties, schoos, media, banks, churches and even in the halls of power, but can they correctly gauge our temperment, our will and resolve?
They may have their fingers of the pulse of the elite in the media, halls of power and universities, but what about those in the fly-over zone. I know that there are tens of millions or even hundreds of millions that are as easily influenced whose values the elite don't reflect. This is both a strength and weakness that they can't guage.
I guess this would be one of those "soft targets" they love. Ordinary people going about their ordinary business, and wham! All of a sudden there are a lot of dead ordinary people leaving lots of grieving ordinary families. The horror of one of those massive ferries going down, taking with it all those cars and all those people! The super & jumbo class ferries can hold over 2000 passengers. I've been on some of those ferries when I lived up that way. Seems like such a non descript place to hit, for a terrorist. But then maybe that's why they would target it. Not as secure perhaps as some of the big name places and cities. But just as devastating.
Let's hope it never happens.
Must be wrong. They are just tourists taking pictures for their families back home. After all, ferry operations are a novelty when you live in the desert.
It is mean, evil, nasty, wicked, reprehensible, underhanded, racist, and bigoted (did I leave anything out?) to profile tourists of Middle Eastern descent like this.
Some people collect pictures and videos of airports, banks, subways, bridges, schools, hospitals, military bases, seaports, chemical plants, and now ferries. What's the harm?
Jay:
I sure hope that was a facetious comment?
Jay - I hope you were being facetious! Everyone understands that the rules changed after 9-11. Everyone should understand that collections of this kind are no longer appropriate. Even if the intention of the photographer at that moment is innocent, they could unintentionally fall into other hands. There should be no exception.
Remember the recent scare about the American school floor plans that were found on disk in the Middle East? Was the collector doing research to create better schools in the Middle East? Perhaps, but those plans could have found their way into the hands of school bombers. Before 9-11 no one would have batted an eye. Today we can take no chances.
Jay - I hope you were being facetious! Everyone understands that the rules changed after 9-11. Everyone should understand that collections of this kind are no longer appropriate. Even if the intention of the photographer at that moment is innocent, they could unintentionally fall into other hands. There should be no exception.
Remember the recent scare about the American school floor plans that were found on disk in the Middle East? Was the collector doing research to create better schools in the Middle East? Perhaps, but those plans could have found their way into the hands of school bombers. Before 9-11 no one would have batted an eye. Today we can take no chances.
Testing comments sign-in...
Yeah jay, that's exactly what you would be taking pictures of - ferries. Not the breathtaking scenery, like the snowcapped mountains, the emerald green forests, the eagles flying overhead, the little inlets and coves, etc. Nah, that's all boring. You'd want pictures of the ferries to show the relatives back home. Of course! How can we jump to such silly conclusions and immediately label Middle Eastern types as potential terrorists. Better that we keep our eye on that beady-eyed granny knitting that sweater though.
These next three weeks will in most likelihood produce an attack with the intention of influencing the election outcome. Let's not forget what happened in Spain.
Everybody...be on your guard!
My concern is the possibility of a coordinated attack involving a number of soft targets occurring simultaneously. That is to say ferry, tunnel, bus terminal aviation targets attacked at the same time from coast to coast.
It is probably how the next attack will transpire. Also follow up blasts designed to kill emergency responders could be expected. The odds are good that an attack will occur just before the elections.
Andrew and epg:
I share your concern about a pre-elcetion attack. And Nadrew, your list left out schools and malls - 2 huge high profile virtually undefendible targets (w/o specific info). Depends on what the jihadis are looking for - if its another spectacular attack with deniability - then a infrastructure attack on subways, bridges etc will do. But if its a morale-killer attack on us infidels where jihadi identity no longer need remain secret or deniable then a Beslan style atrocity makes more sense to their warped minds.
I just wonder what they have in mind knowing that *the* election cometh which will go a long way in deciding their future strategy as well as that of the free world.
When haven't they been taking video and pictures of areas they have an interest in attacking or just gathering information on? I have a brother who works on a nuke site in Montana and he says that people sit outside the fences in thier cars and take pictures and video of the site and then take off once they send guards after them. They come down through Canada and go to various nuke sites in Montana to survey them and they have been doing this for quite sometime.
Don't forget this:
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Sea marshals to protect
ships from terrorist attack
Armed “sea marshals” have been deployed on passenger ships plying major sea lanes in the Philippines to guard against maritime terrorism, the country’s coastguard chief told Agence France-Presse in an interview Tuesday.
Since March passenger ships leaving the port of Manila have had up to six marshals on board from either the coastguard, the armed forces or the police, Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan said.
“They are there to protect the passengers and ships from terrorist activity,” he said, adding that domestic shipping lines themselves have increased onboard security on their vessels.
Concern has been rising over the vulnerability of the shipping sector after the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrilla group claimed it had smuggled explosives that triggered a fire aboard the Superferry 14 on Manila Bay on February 27, killing more than 100 passengers and crew.
Gosingan said an official inquiry has so far failed to turn up any evidence of explosives in the wreck of the ferry. He noted that an arrested Abu Sayyaf suspect who earlier claimed he smuggled explosives aboard the ship hidden in a television set has since recanted.
Investigators now tend to discount sabotage as the cause of the deadly blaze, he added. They are instead looking at the possibility of piped liquefied petroleum gas leaking into cabins below the mess hall, causing a large explosion.
“To cause a fire by a bomb you have to place an incendiary device to start the fire. Explosives will not necessarily start a fire by themselves,” he said.
Putting incendiary materials on board would be “very hard, because they are bulky,” he added.
However, ship owners meeting with government representatives after the ferry disaster demanded increased protection against potential terrorism, Gosingan said.
Some 44.37 million people, or more than half the population of the Philippines, rely on sea transport in this Southeast Asian archipelago every year, according to a study by Myrna Austria, a fellow at the semiofficial Philippine Institute for Development Studies think-tank.
There have been no known terrorist attacks on the high seas in the Philippines, a vocal supporter of the US-led “war on terror.”
However, Manila and a number of provincial cities in the south have suffered several deadly bombings by suspected Islamic militants, including Manila’s light rail system in 2000 and Davao’s airport and port in the south last year.
In Singapore, Efthimios Mitropoulos, International Maritime Organization chief, said last week that a rise in crew abductions in the Malacca Strait could be evidence of terrorists wanting to learn how to navigate ships for use in attacks.
“Terrorism is a concern of all, including the civilian populace because their targets are not military,” Gosingan said.
“They target the soft ones, civilians. They target our way of life.”
Some of the sea marshals deployed aboard ships travel incognito, the coastguard chief said.
At least one of the major ferry firms in the Philippines now have trained bomb-sniffing dogs on board their vessels at all times, he added.
-- AFP
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From the Manila Times
And then also this:
'Three held' over bomb scare at Dover
Mark Oliver
Saturday August 30, 2003
The Guardian
Three people have been arrested in connection with the discovery of a device that sparked a security alert at the port of Dover last night, according to reports.
The scare brought the port of Dover to a standstill, stranding several ferries to and from France and delaying thousands of passengers as a suspicious package was investigated.
The package was found in the customs area at 8pm inside a car which had come off a ferry, thought to be from Calais. An army bomb squad arrived but there were no reports of a controlled explosion.
Four outgoing ferries holding 2,000 passengers were forced to wait in berths but by midnight they had started to leave Dover.
Keith Southey, a spokesman for the Dover harbour board, had said: "Around seven ferries are still waiting to come in and that could increase depending how long the incident lasts." He had said they would be holding "several thousand passengers".
Earlier, one passenger from Medway, Kent, said his ferry was circling around one mile outside the port, but that the captain had reported some ships beginning to unload.
He said people were in good spirits and had found out about the bomb scare using their mobile phones.
Three P&O ferries were delayed leaving the port as well as one from Norfolk Line.
Kent police refused to comment on the report of the arrests.
Also, one of the feries that went down in India was suspicious. though no link to terrorism was ever proved because the ship broke completely apart and no evidense was found.
Message to terrorists-
If your going for a coordinated attack, then make it a good one, because it will be your last one. If you don't die in the attack, you will be hunted down. And your friends and family will be hunted down. And your fellow muslims will be hunted down. It will be your last because there will be none of you left for another. And what will you have gained, but a momentary pleasure in killing?
As scary as this scenario is the one I read about at Newsmax is even more worrying. Bodansky talks about nukes, that is what really concerns me.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/10/4/201642.shtml
Carolyn 2
A very good link! Worried about an attack on Australia before their elections and gave a sigh of relief when nothing happened...Apart from very good news John Howard was returned with increased majority - Latham would have been a disaster!!
Am worried about America which has already been attacked on its own soil and is supreme target for
Jihadists...All our good wishes and prayers [even from an agnostic] are with the American people in the hope their steadfastness in the face of danger and vigilance will stave off such attacks.
Don't know if I've done this properly but justamomof4 has posted this great list with regard to muslim propaganda in schools in Virginia (see article on dhimmiwatch). This is a chance for us all to let the ACLU and our children's educators know what we think of their position on islam.
Here are the e-addresses of some folks to contact starting with the VA ACLU:
ACLU of VA
Executive Director: Kent Willis
6 N. 6th Street, Suite 400
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: 804-644-8022
Current Herndon,VA School Board members are:
Chairman, Kathy L. Smith, Sully District, kathy.l.smith@fcps.edu
Vice-Chairman, Kaye Kory, Mason District, kaye.kory@fcps.edu
Braddock District, Tessie Wilson, tessie.wilson@fcps.edu
Dranesville District, Jane K. Strauss, Jane.strauss@fcps.edu
Hunter Mill District, Stuart D. Gibson, stuart.gibson@fcps.edu
Lee District, Brad Center, brad.center@fcps.edu
Mason District, Kaye Kory, kaye.kory@fcps.edu
Mt. Vernon District, Daniel G. Storck, daniel.storck@fcps.edu
Providence District, Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner, pneichner@fcps.edu
Springfield District, Catherine A. Belter, catherine.belter@fcps.edu
Sully District, Kathy L. Smith, kathy.l.smith@fcps.edu
Also adding the following as per suggestion
by: voletti
"The best way to pull this madness out of our schools is to get churches agitating to present christianity in schools as well... that will make the leftie defenders of this insanity backoff faster than kerry changes positions."
Send messages, make calls to the local churches and synagogues too:
Congregation Beth Emeth, Herndon, VA
(703) 860-4515
Church Of Jesus Christ Of Lds
2727 Centreville Rd, Herndon, VA 20171
Phone: (703) 793-0012
St Veronica Catholic Church
(703) 689-4409
info@stveronica.net
Mount Pleasant Baptist Church
2516 Squirrel Hill Rd, Herndon, VA 20171
Phone: (703) 793-1196
seberhart"@mtpleasantbaptist.org;mwillis@mtpleasantbaptist.org
Temple Baptist Church
(703) 437-7400
Pastor: davidpittman@templebaptistchurch.org
Assoc. Pastor: joemims@templebaptistchurch.org
Youth Pastor: jonstone@templebaptistchurch.org
Floris United Methodist Church
2730 Centreville Rd, Herndon, VA 20171
Phone: (703) 793-0026
Rev. Tom Berlin,Sr Pastor, tberlin@florisumc.org
Rev. Gordon Pruitt, Assoc.Pastor,
gpruitt@florisumc.org
Rev. Martha Real, Assoc. Pastor, mreal@florisumc.org
Trinity Presbyterian Church Web Site
651 Dranesville Rd, Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: (703) 437-5500
And the Herndon VA media outlets:
Observer Newspaper
1043 Sterling Rd # 104, Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: (703) 437-5886
editor@observernews.com
Times Community Newspapers
13873 Park Center Rd, Herndon, VA 20171
Phone: (202) 478-6666
Washington Families Inc
485 Springpark Pl # 550, Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: (703) 318-1385
editor@familiesmagazines.com
Anyone care to format a letter?
Posted by: justamomof4 at October 11, 2004 12:49 PM
Re: post by Jay.....
Jay forgot to mention malls ,theaters, sports arenas, amusement parks, national monuments, parades, celebration gatherings, fuel/oil storage
facilites, refineries,and railways just to name a few more. And people come on, of course Jay was just joshing but expressing a very valid point, The reality is clear, we are sitting ducks!!!
And churches and restaurants. I was overly focused on infrastructure and neglected to include the recreational facilities that krkrjak mentioned. My point - apparently with too thinly veiled sarcasm - was that anywhere we gather for whatever purpose is a target area.
I figured Jay was joshing, but problem is, what he says is dead serious too. Frustrating, in that nowhere is safe really. Sitting ducks alright. Especially if we continue to be so stupid as to worry about offending Muslims with profiling.
There are lots of targets with the potential of massive casualties. Organized, well-funded groups like Al-Q like the publicity of the massive body count. Really pumps them up. The ferries would be a big target, given the size of some of those boats. They're probably checking out dozens of targets, then deciding which is best to do.
At what point do we ask "how can we continue living like this, in fear, worrying about the next hit?" And what do we do to stop having to have that worry? I've already had it, and I don't even live in the U.S.!
The last post I made, I mentioned that the Everett
Islamic center in this story http://ericbarger.com/islam-peace.htm
Is right across from where I live here in WA state. The ferry service mentioned in Mukilteo is about ten minutes away, right past Boeing.
My local paper, Everettherald.net did a story on this center calling it a place for the whole community to get together.
I have left several messages to several reporters there but know one calls back.
Plus I dont know if the email on the site is for real.
Any suggestions?
Recently, 100 or so "demonstrators" gathered at Toronto's CN Tower to snap pictures, in support of a Canadian resident Muslim who was questioned and held by Egyptian security on a visit because it was reported that he had been videotaping this landmark structure "for his relatives to see". He now has a law suit on against the Cdn government for $1M.
What wasn't mentioned in the PR coverage on the radio was that he not only video-taped the tower, but subway stations too. Toronto used to have a rep for clean, if utilitarian subway stations. While they're probably still cleaner than most big city facilities, you can't tell me they are so captivating as to be a tourist attraction.
This weekend, CBC radio reported that a Muslim man is walking from Toronto to Niagara Falls to protest racial profiling. The walker says that he himself has never been a victim of same. However, a Muslim activist, Tariq Fatah (I think) told the reporter that most people don't know that they have been profiled.
On the other hand,there have been enough anti-Semetic acts of violence in Toronto that synagogues, Jewish community centres, cemetaries etc. have had to take on very heightened security measures. Now that's racial profiling, if of a voluntary nature. (Although there have been a few rather minor incidents, Toronto's Muslim community, on the other hand, does not seem to suffer similar concerns about safety.)