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To: jlallen who wrote (17740)	7/18/2002 10:59:49 AM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 21057

At most maybe increase the budget to publicize the DOJ tiplines for these sorts of things.... The reason I'm unsure about this is that it makes sense to publicize where to call if you see something suspicious so that people will more easily report dangers. It also makes sense to me to provide informational or training materials to people whose job it is to be out and about and who might be most likely to spot these dangerous situations telling them what might be dangerous. I started to type "telling them what to look for." That, to me, illustrates the problem with this. The way this program has been portrayed seems like we're signing up people to go out and look for things to report as opposed to informing people what to report if they happen to notice it and where to report it. The latter makes sense to me. The former is scary.

To: jlallen who wrote (17740)	7/18/2002 2:20:54 PM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 21057

I agree with that. People should know what number to call if they see something suspect. I agree with Karen about the dangers of having people going out looking for stuff, but that isn't what disturbs me the most, as I've said. What bothers me is the possibility for abuse. People may try get attention or may have a grudge. And most of all, I am concerned about what happens to such reports. Will there be dossiers of people based on a phone call or two, or just investigations of incidents, for example? This is a true life story that must have some moral, but I'm not sure what it is. Friends of mine arrrived at LAX from NY a couple of weeks before the shooting incident at LAX. They had baggage problems, so got out to the parking lot late at night, after almost everyone else had departed. Hurrying to a car near theirs were three men, evidently Arab. One of them was wearing robes and a turban. Being in the same spooked state everybody is in, especially everybody from NY, they were observing the men closely. My friends' car was behind the car of the three men as they approached the booth where you pay for parking. As the car approached the booth, the man with the turban removed his turban and ducked down. After they got through past the booth, he sat up and put his turban back on. My friends took down the license number of the car and immediately called 911 from their cell phone. To make a long story short, they called as soon as it happened, they called an hour later when they got home. They called 911 and they called the FBI. Made a few calls that night and the next day. No interest was shown. That was that, until the incident at LAX. They decided to be more persistent. Eventually, through someone at her local police station, the friend who lives in LA did find someone to talk to in a federal FBI office in LA (as opposed to the regional office in Long Beach, where there had been no interest) who talked to her attentively. That part was interesting. The FBI guy asked many, many questions, like, have you ever committed a felony, have you ever been in a mental institution, are you under treatment with a therapist, what is your line of work. He apologized for all the personal questions, but they get thousands of "tips" and many of them are from "unbalanced" people, so he had to ask these questions. He asked also "Are you Jewish?" She said she was. He asked "Are you a religious Jew?" (maybe he said 'observant'), to which she answered, "No, but my mother and sister are really into it." (LOL) Anyway, he paid close attention, took down the license plate number, and said he'd get back to her. She had described the car as a Cadillac. Also, one of the three is an artist, and had, at the LA one's insistence, drawn a sketch of the two men, the one in the turban and the driver of the car, the night they'd seen the incident. They all thought that the LAX shooter looked like guy she'd sketched. The FBI guy called back. He had confirmed that the calls had been made the night of the incident and the next night. This was important because that was before the LAX shooting. After the shooting, they'd gotten a huge number of tips. The fact that this was made before the shooting gave it more credibility. He'd also established with the license plate number that the car wasn't a Cadillac. He asked to have the sketches faxed, and the "hard copy" (meaning original) mailed to him. He said the incident didn't have any connection with the shooting, but that it was something, and "a case is being opened." (She took it to mean that it was something they were glad to know about and were following up on.) He thanked her and her friends for being good citizens. The TIPS program made me think about this. They already get so many tips that when somebody sees a guy in turban ducking down presumably so as not to be photographed at a booth in LAX it takes rather a lot to get someone to listen. The majority of these tips are from "unbalanced" people, according to the FBI person. Imagine adding grudges and just plain mistakes in perception to that picture. My friends were trying their very best to get correct information, but they were wrong that the driver looked like the LAX shooter (or at least wrong that it was he) and wrong about the make of car. (They were right about the license plate number.) It really took persistence to get someone who could follow up to listen to them, and they would have given up had the LAX shooting (and their mistake about the driver looking like the shooter) not occurred. And the circumstance of an Arab-looking guy ducking down as he passed a camera is a VERY suspicious one. So there is a moral to the story but i'm not sure whether it's that there are already so many people giving tips that they can't follow up on really suggestive ones, or what. My friends are glad they were persistent and hope the FBI person will let them know what happens with the "case" they caused to be opened.