Reichland Security plans takeover of Olympic Peninsula.

[FORD]

Homeland Security rises on Peninsula: Big building, property sought in Port Angeles-Sequim area

By Brian Gawley and Randy Trick, Peninsula Daily News


PORT ANGELES - The federal government is seeking space for an expanded local Customs and Border Protection office that will grow from five employees to a possible 50.

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking a five-year lease for up to 12,000 square feet of existing office space or up to eight acres of undeveloped property, with 50 on-site parking spots, in the Port Angeles or Sequim areas, according to a classified ad in Friday's issue of the Peninsula Daily News.

"We'll see some substantial growth up here," said Joseph Giuliano, deputy chief of the Blaine Sector of the Border Patrol, which includes Clallam County, on Friday.

"The growth in the number of agents here is not based on any specific threat or vulnerability or deficiency," he said.

"It's just a proportionate overall growth within the border patrol."

Giuliano also said that the number of 50 employees "is the top end capacity. It could change depending upon national priorities."Few had heard news
Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Bob McChesney said Friday that he and Pat Deja, industrial development and properties manager, have discussed potential locations with federal officials.

But he couldn't comment further, McChesney said.

Acting Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher said he had heard about the expansion plans, but added that he couldn't reveal where he had heard about it, or when.

News of the expansion, and the associated search for more office space, came as a surprise to several local economic and political leaders.

That included the 6th Congressional District's Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, who sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

The district includes Clallam and Jefferson counties.

"Nobody seemed to be able to tell me what 50 agents would be doing in Port Angeles or Sequim," said Dick's spokesman, George Behan, by e-mail Friday when asked about the expansion.

State Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, - who represents Clallam and Jefferson counties in the 24th District - also said no one had contacted her office about the agency's plans.Sept. 14 deadline
The Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection wants proposals for a facility within two weeks.

The classified ad sets a Sept. 14 deadline for proposals to be submitted to a Laguna Niguel, Calif., office.

The five-person contingent now housed in the Federal Building on First Street in Port Angeles will double in the next 60 days, Giuliano said.

That number could double again during the next 18 months and potentially reach as many as 50 Customs and Border Protection employees, he said.

"It's a Congressional mandate to grow to 20,000 agents [from 12,000] nationwide," Giuliano said, "and a certain percentage will be on the northern border - which is a political decision, but a valid one."

While Giuliano knew of the upcoming increase in manpower, he said it was the agency's leasing office that placed the advertisement in the PDN on Friday.Welcome jobs
Local officials who learned of the expansion on Friday said it is welcomed as a source of more family-wage jobs on the North Olympic Peninsula.

Clallam County Economic Development Council Executive Director Linda Rotmark said she did not know about it until contacted by the PDN on Friday.

But after she heard about it, she contacted officials with the cities of Sequim and Port Angeles.

Port Angeles Mayor Karen Rogers, reached while on vacation, said she had heard nothing about the federal government's plans, but she welcomed "that kind of expansion of jobs in Port Angeles."

"I have no idea what it would be for, but when governments choose to decentralize operations, I think it's a great opportunity for rural communities."

In Sequim, Mayor Walt Shubert said he had not heard of the expansion either, but similarly welcomed more government-wage jobs on the Peninsula.

"It sounds great," Shubert said.

"It brings people and business and sales tax . . . it's economic well being on a regional scale."

Sheriff Bill Benedict said he was unaware that the border protection officials were seeking more space.

Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones said the same thing.

Several real estate agents contacted - such as Larry Williams, Dan Gase and Jace Schmidt - said they were eager to help.

Mike McAleer, treasurer of the Economic Development Council and a Re/Max agent in Sequim, said there are not a lot of options for the agency, based on it's space requirements.

"That acreage, it would have to be inside the UGA [urban growth area], and in Port Angeles and Sequim there isn't much acreage in the UGA," McAleer said.

He said that through Re/Max, he planned to look into whether he could help the agency find the space they need.

"I think it's a terrific opportunity for the kind of jobs we want to bring to the community, either in Port Angeles or Sequim."

The Border Patrol's Blaine Sector covers the 19 westernmost counties of Washington plus Alaska and Oregon.

It employs 131 agents at stations in Port Angeles, Blaine, Bellingham and Lynden, which soon will move to Sumas.

The numbers of agents will at least double during the next 18 months as part of the overall nationwide increase, Giuliano said.

"The whole sector is doubling," he said.

Giuliano said that, to his knowledge, the Port Angeles station was the only one in the Blaine Sector to be seeking new quarters.________
Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-417-3532 or brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.

Reporter Randy Trick can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at randy.trick@peninsuladailynews.com.

Got mixed feelings about this one....... Federal govt jobs could be a good thing in a part of the state where jobs aren't easy to come by, but the fact is that the expansion is unneccessary. All you have here is one privately owned ferry going back and forth to Victoria BC a few times a day, and their operation obviously works, because Ahmed Rassam was busted there in 1999, before any of this Reichland Security bullshit existed. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

And why expect Michael "of the Devil" Chertoff to fix anything??

[FORD]

Who ever heard of a "terraist" using a harp??



Harpist on Port Townsend-Keystone ferry silenced after 17 years

By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News


PORT TOWNSEND - David Michael's Celtic harp has been silenced after more than 17 years of soothing ferry passengers traveling between Port Townsend and Keystone on Whidbey Island.

"They shut me down for exactly the same thing they hired me for 32 years ago," said Michael, who unsuccessfully negotiated last week for a contract with a ferry system lawyer.

"This is like being kicked in the solar plexus."

Michael, 55, who moved to Port Townsend in 1990, gave up his volunteer performances aboard the Klickitat on Aug. 13.

Washington State Ferries officials had received two complaints from passengers, saying that they had to abide by security measures while Michael did not.

Michael was notified that he had to comply with both security and for-profit policies.

State ferries officials say they had no choice but to fairly enforce security policies that were stepped up in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the East Coast on Sept. 11, 2001.

Tightened security requires passengers to take their baggage and personal items off the ferries, even if they are returning on the next ferry run.

They must also remain with their personal items, such as backpacks and luggage.Harp too heavy
What that meant for Michael was lugging his 30-pound harp and packing CDs on and off each of eight departures and arrivals at the terminals.

"I got a hernia lifting my harp upstairs on the Klickitat," he said.

His harp is awkward to move without risking damage to it, he said.

Replacing the instrument would cost about $6,000 if he were to drop it down the ferry's steep metal staircase.

Michael said the port captain sent out a memo two weeks ago, saying that ferry captains could no longer allow him to leave his harp on board while he disembarked. He was also forbidden to sell CDs.

Asked why the ferry system's security and for-profit sales policy had not been enforced in the past, Marta Coursey, state ferries communications manager, said the two complaints led to the decision.

"We have had very long-standing security policies and for selling products on vessels for profit," she said.

"It's not that he can't play the harp on board anymore, it's just he has to carry the harp off," she said.

"The issue was not that he could not play, the issue was he was asked to do what all other passengers have to do.

"I actually think that a lot of (ferry) employees enjoyed him as well. It's just one of those things that we could not turn a blind eye to."Free concert
Michael saw himself as putting on a free concert, while putting out a hat for donations - or busking - and even giving his CDs away to those who didn't have cash.

Michael lived in the Seattle area in the 1980s. From 1983 to 1990, he produced music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"Since I moved to Port Townsend in 1990, I've voluntarily given these free concerts regularly on most summer days and on weekends much of the rest of the year,". Michael wrote in a recent farewell e-mail to his fans and friends.

"I've played to at least 50,000 people a year in this way, or perhaps a million total."

Port Townsend-area resident Norm MacLeod, a fan of Michael's, described the musician as "perhaps one of the best Celtic harpists around, and one whose music aboard the ferries has delighted many."

MacLeod saw the loss of Michael as part of "the gradual erosion of the attractions for living in this wonderful region.

Michael says his loss is also a loss for Port Townsend.

He's acted as an ambassador for Port Townsend, he said, urging ferry passengers to visit downtown, and telling them about attractions.

He also saw himself as a benefit to ferry security.

"Nobody is checking out passengers more than me," he said.

"So if there was something or somebody suspicious, I'm most likely the one who would turn them in."

The loss for Michael is more personal.

Songs he composed while aboard the Klickitat include "Keystone Passage."

"I've always loved the ferry boat and I have found inspiration on the water," he said.________
Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.

Link (http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070902/NEWS/709020302&template=printart)

[ddirvine]

Be afraid, be VERY afraid.............

It has taken many decades to attain the rights that are being washed away in the name of security. People need to wake up and see these things for what they are................big brother controlling your every move and watching everything.