Al-Qaeda targeting DC restaurants

“See it, say it - then wait for Homeland Security officials to pick up the phone

By Al Kamen

Washington Post Staff Writer 
Tuesday, October 12, 2010; 8:21 PM

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has launched a public awareness campaign to encourage Metro riders to be more vigilant. It's part of her department's "If you see something, say something" campaign. So "if you see something suspicious," she advises in a message airing on station speakers, "say something to local authorities to make it right." Report it to an employee or call Metro police at 202-962-2121.

It may work fine in Metro, but these "see-say" campaigns can be tricky. Our colleague Jeff Stein, on his SpyTalk blog, recently wrote of a retired municipal judge in New Jersey who tried repeatedly to report an abandoned suitcase in historic Jackson Square in New Orleans.

The judge, a frequent visitor to that area, was at home watching a live video feed of the square when he spotted the suitcase at 9:30 a.m. After about an hour, no one had picked up the suitcase, so he called the New Orleans police and was shunted to "complaints," where no one answered after 15 or 20 rings, so he hung up.

He then called the main Homeland Security number in Washington, and after describing his concern, he told Stein, he was "transferred to another number that never picked up." Same thing happened when he called the FBI's New Orleans office about 10:30 a.m.

Finally, around 2:30 that afternoon, a New Orleans FBI official called back and apologized for the delay. By then someone apparently had picked up the suitcase.

It's like that scene in Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1," when one rebel leader boasts that he can "call spirits from the vasty deep." Big deal, a skeptic replies, anyone can call them. Question is, do they show up?

Apparently not always.”