[Infowarrior] - Ferry riders sought by FBI last summer were just tourists

[Richard Forno]

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2004394642&zsection_id=2003925728&slug=fbi06m&date=20080506

Two ferry riders sought by FBI last summer were just tourists

By Sara Jean Green

Seattle Times staff reporter

They were software consultants in town for a weeklong business  
conference — not terrorists planning an attack to cripple the  
country's largest ferry system.

Last summer, the FBI launched an international search for two men  
after crew members and riders on a Washington State Ferry reported  
their unusual behavior — namely that they were taking pictures below  
deck, in areas that don't hold much interest for most tourists.

A ferry captain snapped their photo, which was passed along to the FBI.

Turns out the men, both citizens of a European Union nation, were  
captivated by the car-carrying capacity of local ferries.

"Where these gentlemen live, they don't have vehicle ferries. They  
were fascinated that a ferry could hold that many cars and wanted to  
show folks back home," FBI Special Agent Robbie Burroughs said Monday.

The FBI's decision to release the photograph to the media last summer  
was controversial because the men — who were described as Middle  
Eastern-looking — were not suspected of committing a crime. While law- 
enforcement officials say they focus on behavior, not ethnicity, local  
activists say members of the Arab-American community often complain of  
racial profiling and many are afraid to ride ferries or board planes  
because of it.

Two weeks ago, the men appeared at a U.S. Embassy and identified  
themselves as the men in the photo released to the media in August, a  
couple of weeks after they took a ferry from Seattle to Vashon Island  
during a business trip, Burroughs said.

They came forward because they worried they'd be arrested if they  
traveled to the U.S. and so provided proof of their identities,  
employment and the reason for their July trip to Seattle, according to  
the FBI. The bureau was able to verify that information but declined  
to identify the men or the city where the embassy is located, citing  
privacy concerns.

One of the men recognized himself in the photo sometime in the fall  
but didn't know what to do, said David Gomez, the FBI's assistant  
special agent in charge of national-security programs in Seattle. He  
contacted his friend and they consulted family members involved in law  
enforcement in their home country. Then they went to the U.S. Embassy,  
Gomez said.

"We want to put the issue to rest," he said, noting that all along,  
the FBI only wanted to talk to the men. They aren't in trouble, nor do  
their names appear on a government watch list or no-fly list, he said.

For someone who rides the ferry every day, taking photos of the car  
deck is pretty unusual — but not so for "a guy who rides it one time  
in his life," Gomez said. "Their story makes sense; their story has  
validity ... . It was perfectly normal once we learned what was going  
on."

Gomez defended the decision to release the photo to the public after  
agents became "somewhat stymied" in their investigation into the men's  
identities.

The Seattle Times initially refrained from publishing the photos in  
print or online to allow time for additional reporting on the  
circumstances surrounding the FBI investigation and the photographs.  
After more reporting, The Times did publish the photos with a story  
that also covered the controversy.

But Rita Zawaideh criticized the FBI's decision to release the photo —  
then and now. At the time, Zawaideh, chairwoman of the Seattle-based  
Arab American Community Coalition, questioned why officials didn't  
first consult community members, who might have been able to identify  
the men.

"Everyone yelled at me for telling the FBI off," she said. "We're  
lucky it came out the way it did."

Had the men been terrorists, the publicity could have forced them to  
change tactics and targets, creating a risk for another city, she  
said. Or the men could have been innocent victims had someone spotted  
them and "decided to take the law into their own hands," she said.

Zawaideh says relationships between the local Arab community and law- 
enforcement agencies have since improved. Still, at least 30 calls to  
the coalition's 24-hour hotline are logged each month with complaints  
of racial profiling, said Zawaideh, who suspects the problem is  
underreported. The majority involve the treatment of "anyone who looks  
dark-skinned and foreign" when they ride ferries, board airplanes or  
cross the U.S.-Canada border, she said.

Aziz Junejo, who hosts a weekly public-access television program and  
writes a column on Islam for The Seattle Times, said he's heard  
stories about and even experienced more scrutiny on local ferries,  
particularly when he's with Muslim women who wear traditional head  
scarves.

"We kind of get the walk-by a little slower and a little more  
noticeable than any others on the boat," he said. "It perpetuates  
fear, especially in Muslim children who are Americans, first and  
foremost."

A ferries spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Monday.

Coast Guard Cpt. Steve Metruck said none of the agencies that meet  
monthly to discuss the ferry system's vulnerability to a terrorist  
attack — including the FBI, Washington State Ferries and the  
Washington State Patrol — engage in "any profiling of that sort."  
Threats to the ferry system — which carries 24 million people and 11  
million vehicles on 10 routes each year — are constantly monitored, he  
said.

"We're constantly changing our [security] practices so they can't be  
predicted," he said. "This work is never done — it's always continuous."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen at seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company