FBI Seeks Pair in Possible Terror Surveillance of Ferries

By James Gordon Meek

FBI and Department of Homeland Security sources tell me they're concerned about a strange incident in Washington state they fear may indicate terrorists are casing ferries for attacks. The FBI's Seattle division this week made the extremely rare move -- with full approval of the bureau's counterterrorism division in D.C. -- of releasing photos of two men who allegedly have been spotted on up to six different ferry runs in the state.

The pair, who have not yet been identified or apprehended for questioning, tried to access restricted areas on the ferries, which haul 26 million people a year, counterterror sources say. One Coast Guard official told the Seattle Times that the suspects were "taking photographs of doors not seabirds," a fact that prompted the FBI and DHS to issue a bulletin to law enforcement on Wednesday, I have learned.

The FBI in a statement said the pair's "behavior may have been innocuous." But my sources say that the suspicious actions of the men -- which prompted a ferry worker to snap pictures of them -- is disquieting because of the present heightened threat this summer and the unresolved question of who the men are and why they were trying to photograph the ferries' inner workings and procedures. The case has risen to the top of daily intel briefings in recent days, including at the FBI field office in New York, a source said.

But the NYPD is not ramping up security on the Staten Island Ferry, sources said. Read more about this bizarre case at the New York Daily News' Mouth of the Potomac Blog.

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