FBI warns local dive shops
about saboteurs in training

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Star-Bulletin staff and news services

The FBI is asking dive shops and schools in Hawaii and around the country to be alert for any suspicious people or activities after receiving information that a terrorist attack could be carried out by scuba divers.

The FBI said it is looking into whether al-Qaida operatives have been taking scuba training in order to blow up ships at anchor, power plants, bridges, depots or other waterfront targets.

"They were wondering if we had any strange requests for instructing scuba," said Marc Langevin, the owner of See in Sea Scuba in Honolulu.

Langevin said the agent who visited his shop asked if anyone wanted to learn only basic skills and not recreational diving.

He said the FBI agent noted that most shops keep records of divers for several years but did not ask to look at the records.

"We want to make contact with dive shops to request their assistance in identifying any suspicious activity," said Kevin Rickett, an FBI spokesman in Hawaii. He said professional divers are in a better position to identify suspicious activity than FBI agents who are not skilled divers.

"There is a credible threat to all U.S. ports," said Honolulu Coast Guard spokeswoman Erica Ryan. "Everyone is encouraged to look out for anything suspicious."

Ryan said the Coast Guard is being vigilant, but is not increasing its activities because of the threat.

The possibility that members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might have taken scuba training emerged from interrogations of people taken into custody in the U.S.-led effort to root out terrorism around the world, said John Sylvester, who heads the counterterrorism office in the FBI's San Diego bureau.

A warning of possible attacks by divers was issued by the government before Memorial Day. The Coast Guard also warned of the possibility last weekend, and security around ports and ships has been tightened as a result.

Last week, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the world's leading diving organization, gave the FBI a list of 2 million people the association has certified to dive over the past three years, Vice President Jeff Nadler said.

Agents are contacting all U.S. dive shops to check the names of those who took scuba courses over the past three years, including those who dropped out without getting certified, Sylvester said. The United States has about 1,200 dive jobs, Nadler said.