[Don Joe]

"There's no proof that there's anything to be concerned about"

Yeah right. It's not like the house is a raging inferno, after all. It's just a bunch of smouldering fires in the wastebaskets and window curtains. Nothing to break a sweat over. If it develops into anything serious, deal with it then. But for heavens sake don't do anything that might offend the guy with the matches.

[martin_fierro]

Somebody oughtta film these groups filming. <|:)~

[cardinal4]

SEA has been targeted before. These guys just sound suspicious.

[elfman2]

They're screwing with us (or spending off their own money.) Taking out a ferry or bridge is way too difficult. The force required for that could better be used on a public event to kill or on a multitude of power lines to disrupt. Those tapes won't have much value.

They're in total disarray if they're resorting to this.

[livius]

A group of Middle Eastern men were also seen videotaping ferries in San Francisco Bay a couple of weeks ago. Their behavior was almost identical to that mentioned in this article about Seattle. The captain and crew in SF reported it, too, but too late for the men to be found by law enforcement.

[elfman2]

The more I think about it, I see this as what you do when your leaders are in hiding, recruitment's near zero, your cause is hopeless and you still have several million dollars to spend.

[twntaipan]

It sounds to me like they are filming the interiors for purposes of building a mock up of the vessel. That could be used for preparing a hi-jacking of a ferry and killing the passengers. Muslim terrorists have hit ships and boats before (in the middle east) because they are relatively defenseless.

[GretchenEE]

I saw a much harder-hitting report on KIRO 7 TV news last night. They didn't use hedging words, such as "appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent," they came right out quoting the sources as saying the men were Middle Eastern, etc. This article is awash in mitigations that represent the pre-9/11 mentality in the US.

The article fails to mention some of the most key points I saw on the news, such as one of the men drove away in a car that had NO license plates.

I must say I sense a need for our local authorities to get themselves folded into some heavy-duty info exchanges, investigations, and action plans with the feds on this.

[RaceBannon]

Death of a thousand cuts. Hit them at airline counters, parks, ferries (Because victims cannot escape while you shoot at them), airplanes, buses, inside buildings...

[GretchenEE]

FYI

[TADSLOS]

They became agitated when told to leave the vessel at each terminal as required, she said. The captain went home and decided to report the incident the next day.

Why did the captain wait? He should have notified the Coast Guard and State Patrol of the incident as it was occurring and intercepted these guys when they docked. This is another example of the PC anasthesia that's gripping this country.

There's no proof that there's anything to be concerned about; it's just that we're on heightened alert,"

Repeat after me...9-11, 9-11, 9-11

[isthisnickcool]

AT THE LOCAL TACOMA MOSQUE:

IMAM MOHAMMAD MOHAMMAD: We must never kill innocents. And never kill Jews! No more bombings. I condemn the 9/11 attacks! Let us take the Christian values and be like them. Love and peace. And let's just have fun and take a few ferry rides!

/sarcasm off

[small voice in the wilderness]

a different group of men appearing to be of Middle Eastern descent took extensive videotapes on the ferry

"hello, Moehammed?..CurlyJoesama here. The evil American Infidels seem on for us. We need new strategery and help. HAH! Good plan and praise be to allah for our great brains. Send new group to fool the american infidel fools?!?!HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!o.k.and goodbye. Don't forget to send the ACME jet powered sneakers with non detectable sole imprints. HAHAHAHAHA o.k.goodbye..."

[jiggyboy]

Another reason to film the interior would be to work out where good hiding places are. Smuggling comes to mind.

[makoman]

Somebody oughtta film these groups filming. <|:)~

Great Idea!

[Grampa Dave]

Re certain people photograping possible sites for terrorist activities.

There is a great fishing stream about 30 miles from my home. It is a tailwater stream below a dam.

The place is 25 miles from nowhere from here, and sight seeing tourists never go to this lake and its dam. The people who go there are locals, who fish, hike or boat on the lake or fly fish the stream below the dam.

After 9/11, several of us noticed rental cars loaded with middle eastern appearing men and sometimes women with cameras taking pictures not of the lake, but the dam it self.

One of my friends contacted a sheriff deputy to talk to him about it. The area lies between two counties and is kinda of a no patrol area. His suggestion was for all of us to buy a cheap one time/use telephoto camera and keep it handy in our trucks and vehicles. Then if we saw these "visitors" to stop at a safe distance and take a picture of them and their vehicle.

Two times since then I have seen these "visitors" and stopped. When they saw me stopping and getting out with a camera, in both instances they got into their rental vehicles and took off.

I will probably replace my one time/use camera with the Radio Shack binoc/digitial camera that you posted the pictures of.

These people do not want their pictures taken. So those who ride the ferries, just have a camera handy to take pictures of the Diversity Visa Lottery Winners when they start to take pictures.

[Psycho_Bunny]

If they were suspicious enough to write an article about, why weren't they suspicious enough for the ferry's crew to radio ahead and have the police waiting at the end of the line to question these people?

This really sounds like a freelance newsie reaching for a non-story.

[crystalk]

I don't think Muslims ought to be allowed on ferries in Washington State or anywhere else in the USA.

Just imagine what could be done with 1500 people and 500 cars and blow the whole thing out of the water.

Let the Allah-effers take the long way around, otherwise American ferry riders are not safe.

[foreverfree]

bump

[Shermy]

Here's the San Francisco Bay story:

Bay terror fears (Suspicious man on ferry)