Anyone who knows these men or their whereabouts are asked to call the FBI at (206) 622-0460:

The FBI says it does not know their names, ethnicity, place of origin, or even their religion; they just acted suspiciously and a ferry boat captain took their photographs:

10:29 PM PDT on Monday, August 20, 2007
By CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 News (Seattle)

SEATTLE – The FBI is asking for the public’s help to identify two men who have been seen acting suspiciously aboard Washington State ferries recently. The FBI released a bulletin late Monday, including photographs of the two men. One of the photos shows the men side-by-side and the other is a solo shot of one of them. They were snapped by a ferry employee who thought the pair acted suspiciously. “They had more than the average interest in the working parts of the ferry, the layout of the ferry, the size of it — more than you would see in normal passenger,” said FBI spokesperson Robbie Burroughs.

Despite the FBI’s claim to know little about the pair, the release of their photos has upset some in the Puget Sound area who self-identified themselves based upon their ethnicity or affiliation:

Dozens of Muslims and Arabs have complained to community leaders about the photographs. The fallout has led to a meeting planned today between Muslim- and Arab-American community leaders and law-enforcement officials.

“We need to get some type of apology from them and figure out how to get back to where we were,” said Rita Zawaideh, head of the Arab-American Community Coalition.

Community leaders also expect to raise questions about another recent incident. On Aug. 12, leaders say half a dozen men of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent were stopped and questioned for up to six hours as they left a ferry in Seattle following a trip to the Olympic Peninsula. Those men contacted Zawaideh to report the incident as profiling.

David Gomez, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office, said he was aware of an incident in which five or six ferry passengers were questioned, but wasn’t clear whether it was the same one.

Zawaideh said she met with FBI officials about the August incident three days before the agency released the photos of the two men. But the FBI didn’t bring up that subject.

“Why not ask us then and we would have had a way to ask people in the community,” she said.

Gomez said the agency needs to address certain sensitive issues, but “people in those communities have to get over this sensitivity toward feeling victimized.”

Many passengers have been stopped and questioned recently, as the ferry system has stepped up security once the FBI concluded the men might be watching the system. The stops are based on activities, not skin color, Gomez said.

Two days ago, a Seattle Times photographer, who is white, was stopped and questioned after taking photographs near the Mukilteo ferry terminal.

The FBI didn’t take the photos of the two men to the Arab- and Muslim-American community because the agency doesn’t know if the men are Middle Eastern, Gomez added.

“That seems potentially prejudicial to me, and in some ways worse than simply putting [the photos] out the way we did,” Gomez said. “It is not us saying these guys look Middle Eastern.”

Zawaideh countered: “They’re not saying these men are Arabs, but insinuating they are.”
…
Both Zawaideh and S. Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), say their organizations have been receiving more reports lately involving allegations of discrimination.

The one on the right looks a lot like someone I know yet I also know that he has never been in the Seattle area. By the way, he is American born, of Irish and Italian desent, and Catholic. One should not assume too much from a photograph. Perhaps people ought to judge others based upon their actions don’t you think?

Audrey Hudson reports today that CAIR (the Council of American-Islamic Relations) is complaining that their membership is down. They are blaming it on the Department of Justice and the Washington Times’ reporting:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it’s suffering a decline in membership and fundraising and blames the Justice Department for listing it as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Texas case against a charity accused of ties to terrorists.

CAIR asked a U.S. District Court in Dallas to strike it from the list of more than 300 other Muslim groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in the government’s case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The case is being tried in Dallas.

“The public naming of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator has impeded its ability to collect donations as possible donors either do not want to give to them because they think they are a ‘terrorist’ organization or are too scared to give to them because of the possible legal ramifications of donating money to a ‘terrorist’ organization,” CAIR said in an amicus curiae brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The brief cites reporting by The Washington Times as evidence of the organization’s declining membership. When this account of declining CAIR membership was published in The Times earlier this summer, CAIR denounced it as a “hit piece.”

The Justice Department shut down the Holy Land Foundation and in 2004 indicted several of its top officers, who are accused of raising $36 million from 1995 through 2001 for the benefit of organizations and persons linked with Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by the Clinton administration in 1995. The foundation raised $12.4 million after the designation that made such fundraising illegal, prosecutors say.

The 42-count federal indictment accuses the foundation’s officers of conspiracy, providing support to terrorists, money-laundering and income-tax evasion.

On May 29, the Justice Department made public a list naming 307 unindicted co-conspirators — including CAIR — in the case now being tried before U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish.
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The CAIR brief says “the amount of donations” to CAIR “has dwindled well below their monthly budget and as their associational activity necessarily relies upon donations from the public, the government’s labeling of them as an unindicted co-conspirator has chilled their associational activity.”

While being named an unindicted co-conspirator is a criminal case against an organization accused of raising money for terrorist might explain declining membership and donations, here are a few other things that may also have contributed to CAIR’s decline:

CAIR also sued on behalf of 9/11 dry run terrorists

CAIR plans to interfere in Iraq

CAIR leader knows “violent jihadist”

CAIR and 6 imams need mirror to find bigots

Shut up or CAIR will sue you into poverty

CAIR about South Carolina’s “good ol’ boys”

That is not a full list, just a few things for CAIR to consider.