FBI finally nabs sightseers

By Libby

Gee, it seems like only yesterday that the wingnut blog mob was leading the panic over those suspicious looking Middle Eastern fellows on the Seattle ferry. How time flies. Here we are a mere ten months later.

The FBI has called off a global manhunt for two men who looked Middle Eastern and were spotted snapping pictures and demonstrating "suspicious behavior" on a Washington ferry last summer.

My headline is a little misleading. The FBI didn't actually find them. They finally turned themselves in.

The men appeared at a U.S. Embassy two weeks ago and identified themselves as European business consultants who were on a trip to Seattle, FBI officials said Monday. Special Agent in Charge Laura Laughlin said the men took a couple of days off in the middle of the July visit and decided to ride a car ferry. They took photos to show relatives back home, she said.

And this really inspires confidence in national security.

The FBI, in a statement issued Monday, thanked "the many media organizations worldwide that published the photographs and ultimately played a prominent role in resolving this matter, allowing the investigative resources of the multiple law enforcement agencies to be redirected to other important matters."

Emphasis mine. I mean really. If our intelligence agencies can't even find the innocent tourists, how the hell are they going to protect us from the real terrorists? Somehow, I don't think those guys will be showing up voluntarily at the nearest US Embassy. But, I'm not blaming the agencies. I think they've fallen victim to the widesweep surveillance imperative mandated by the Bush administration.

Comments

[mordusmerlin]

Why didn't the FBI find these guys? They were never actually looking. This media blitz was a propaganda exercise designed to activate the primitive lizard-brain. Fight or flight. Adrenaline rush. Terrorists are everywhere. Taking pictures! Be afraid. Danger! Rally around the nearest authority figure. Do everything he says.