Retired U.S Customs inspector Diana Dean has been called a hero for helping foil an al-Qaida terrorist in Port Angeles five years ago.

These days, her watchful eye is trained more on her 2-year-old granddaughter at her home in Mandan, N.D.

Baby-sitting is a tough, rewarding job, Dean says.

But she often thinks back to Dec. 14, 1999, when she first discovered a man in the shadows of the Port Angeles Customs shelter off the landing of the ferry MV Coho.

Ahmed Ressam had bomb-making materials, including two jugs of nitroglycerine-like substance, in the trunk of the Chrysler 300M.

Dean was working the Port of Entry lane when she asked the shadowy figure to step out of the car.

Ressam bolted, and two fellow Customs inspectors — Mark Johnson and Mike Chapman — chased him down, tackled him and brought him back to the Customs station.

Now living in North Dakota, Dean said she still works with Customs officials and the FBI, giving talks and making training films on border protection.

She said she believes the nation’s borders are better protected now, with increased personnel and technology.

And she said the United States must stay focused on the battle against terrorism.

“I think we’re safer. We’re all so honed in and aware,” Dean said. “But I think to a person, we have underestimated the terrorists.”

Medal to be renamed

Today, U.S. Customs officials will rename an anti-terrorism award in honor of Dean and an inspector in Orlando, Fla. who prevented a suspected terrorist from entering the United States a few weeks before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

It will be called the Diana Dean and Jose Melendez-Perez Anti-Terrorism Award.

“We are proud to name the (award) in their honor,” said Robert Bonner, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The award will be given to Customs inspectors for exemplary work in protecting the nation’s borders, agency officials said.

“I’m real honored,” Dean said Wednesday night, as she prepared to travel to Washington, D.C., for the award ceremony.

“It’s very unexpected.”