Here's my 03/26 letter to James Davis -- the new FBI chief in Denver. Note the picture below. Those are the two guys who were riding the Seattle ferry. To the right: Our very own James Davis posing with Saddam Hussein.Mr. James H. Davis
Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Denver Division
Byron G. Rogers Federal Building
1961 Stout Street, Suite 1823
Denver, Colorado 80294
Dear Mr. Davis:
Hello and welcome to Denver. I enjoyed watching the profile of you on FoxNews Monday night and appreciated reading the even more detailed information about you in the official press release put out by the FBI. I love all things FBI and receive a Google Alert whenever a story mentions the Bureau.
Interesting that you were in Iraq.
I am a Colorado native and wanted to communicate a concern to you right off the bat. Since you were in Iraq until recently, you probably missed the FBI ferry incident in Seattle. Here’s what happened: The FBI approached the newspaper of record in Seattle, asking the paper to publish photographs of two men who were obviously of Middle Eastern descent; the FBI said the men had been seen on several ferries and seemed “overly interested in the workings and layout” of the ferries. The managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer initially refused to run the photos, citing concerns over civil rights. The issue blew up, and the editor eventually caved in.
Scores of United States citizens of Middle Eastern descent complained to Seattle-area community leaders about the photographs. Earlier the same month of the incident, half a dozen men of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent had been stopped and questioned for as many as six hours as they left a ferry following a trip to the Olympic Peninsula.
I am in no way implying that ferry riders be put in danger; I am saying that I would not sacrifice civil liberties or privacy for the illusion of security, and that I hope you think the same way now that you are in charge here.
I have discussed the FBI “ferry incident” at length with many people and have not met a single person who disagrees with me on this: If the two obviously-Middle Eastern men had instead been two affluent white women from the suburbs – dressed like veteran law librarians out taking pictures with high-end cell phones – they would have been invisible. No ferry worker would have snapped their picture in the first place. Two affluent white women could have done their best to act as suspicious as possible, traveling back and forth on those ferries for months. Still no mug shots in the paper by request of the FBI.
At the time of the Seattle incident, the FBI emphasized that the men were not suspects in any crime and that there had been no threats to the ferry system. Two days after the photos ran, a ferry was shut down because officials found an object in a men’s bathroom during a routine sweep. The object – cylindrical, made of duct tape and smelling of marijuana – turned out not to be dangerous, and was not linked to the men. “It was not a bomb or a bong,” a Washington State Patrol spokesman said. “We don’t know what to call it.”
I do not think it is a good time to be an American of Middle Eastern descent in this country. But I know you will prove me wrong during your tenure here.
Best regards,
Jeanie
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