Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] PSUBS and FBI

[Cliff Redus <cliffordredus@sbcglobal.net>]

Along this same line.

 

Last year, Gary Boucher and I took his psub, Vindicator, out for a dive in a lake in Arkansas.  As expected, towing the sub from Louisiana to Arkansas generated quite a bit of fascination and interest from drivers and from those at the lake. After a weekend of diving and  returning to our respective homes, I got and email from Gary saying that shortly after arriving home, he answered the front door two FBI agents (I don't know if they were wearing dark glasses).  They had been contacted by someone up at the lake about a suspicious  sub and were interested in what we were doing with this private sub. Gary explained that this was just a hobby and offered to take them out to the hanger where he keeps the boat so they could see the boat for themselves.  They declined. According to Gary,  they where very cordial to him and indicated they were just being vigilant. That was the last he heard from the FBI.  From that point forward, I have been careful of what I say in  this forum as I now assume that all psub emails are parsed for trigger words by some large main frame in Washington DC. 

 

Cliff

 

 

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
Samuel Johnson

----- Original Message ----
From: Jon Wallace <jon@psubs.org>
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 11:48:17 AM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] PSUBS and FBI

Hello,

 

Given the growing popularity of using submersibles for illegal and/or suspicious activities, the federal government is interested in knowing more about psub type submersibles.  One thing I've not seen anyone talk about regarding the convention yet, is that we were approached by a special agent of the FBI on Friday at the dive site.  I had accounted for all participants except for Frank D, and not having met him before I didn't know what he looked like.  Shortly after we arrived at the dive location, I saw a gentleman walking down the path.  I approached him and said "Frank?" anticipating that Frank D. had arrived.  He said "no", then looked at me and said "Jon?".  I said "yes", and he then pulled out his FBI identification (Special Agent David Smith), explained why he was there, and asked to learn more about the submersibles we use.

 

Agent Smith made it clear from the outset that we were not doing anything illegal and he was not there to stop us from using our submersibles or continuing with our convention.  I brought him around to the various subs we had on site, explained how they functioned, and also explained the difference between 1-ATM, ambient, and wet-subs.  I then invited him to speak to us the next day at the seminar we were holding, which he agreed to do.  Agent Smith spoke to the assembled group on Saturday and explained that after the sub/QE2 incident in New York recently, the FBI was researching small subs.  He explained that in the post-9/11 environment, the FBI would like us to remain vigilant and report any suspicious requests, discussions, or activity that might seem out of the realm of what a recreational/personal submersible might be used for.

 

Given another drug sub capture, we can expect continuing attention to our hobby.

 

Jon