Steve Quayle News Alerts

September 13, 2003
By DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald Writer

Authorities in Maine and elsewhere in New England are on the lookout for two men spotted in Naples who resemble a pair of suspected al-Qaida terrorists.

The men reportedly resemble two people whose pictures were posted a week ago on an FBI Web site. One is a naturalized Canadian citizen whose videotaped suicide message was found in an al-Qaida leader's home in Afghanistan. The other is a Saudi who lived for years in South Florida, and who may lead a terrorist cell such as the one headed by Mohamed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers who flew out of Portland.

The FBI also is investigating reports that one or more of those being sought, or someone who resembles them, was seen last month taking pictures at the ferry terminal in Lincolnville. The Department of Homeland Security issued an alert this summer saying that ferries could be potential terrorist targets, which is one reason ferry workers called authorities.

The sightings are among many across the nation that the FBI is sorting through since it posted the images of four suspected al-Qaida operatives on its Web site in hopes of locating them.

"That went out nationwide. I would guess just about every FBI office in the U.S. is getting calls, too," said James Osterrieder, special agent in charge of the FBI in Maine.

The FBI is seeking the four for questioning in connection with possible threats against the United States, and posted their pictures to enlist the help of the public in finding them. Publication on the Internet can reach far-flung corners of the world, including remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where many al-Qaida operatives are believed to be hiding.

The men are not known to be in the United States or working together, but all have used false names and travel documents in the past, officials said.

A couple told the FBI that they spotted two Middle Eastern-looking men standing outside a slate gray BMW in Naples on Sunday, Osterrieder said. The couple were outside their own car at a Route 302 business and were fairly close, he said. They noted the car and that it had Massachusetts license plates because when the men left, they made a U-turn and headed south, he said.

When the couple returned home and saw a newspaper report showing pictures of the four suspects, they felt the two men resembled Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, 28, and Abderraouf Jdey, 38, Osterrieder said.

"They said they looked a little like two of the four depicted in the paper, so we took the information, documented it and put it in our database," he said.

The FBI then issued a bulletin to Maine law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the car and men matching that description, Osterrieder said.

"It was just enough for us to put out the (bulletin) so they could stop it and field interview the people in it, identify the occupants and if they can't identify them or if they appear to be the terrorists or people who look like them, call us," Osterrieder said.

The bulletin was expanded to include all New England police departments after a member of the New Hampshire anti-terrorism task force notified Portland that a car matching that description had been seen in New Hampshire.

Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion, whose deputies patrol Naples, said his officers are on the alert for the vehicle although the FBI has not asked for any special patrols or additional effort.

"The (bulletin) infers to my agency the threat level of the information. At this point, whatever evidence is in control of the FBI seems to indicate this warrants simply an inquiry," Dion said. "They're not asking us to take any enforcement action against these people.

"If the information represents a more serious threat to community safety, then my expectation would be any request or sharing of information would occur at the executive level."

Naples is located alongside Sebago Lake, the water source for 200,000 people in Greater Portland, though it is 10 miles from the system's intake pipes.

Water system general manager Ron Miller said he discussed the sighting with the FBI regional director and with the EPA in Boston.

"Based on those discussions, I feel very confident that our water supply has not been threatened," he said. "They have our phone number and they would contact us if there was a real or imminent threat. In this case, they did not feel it warranted a call."

In Lincolnville, a crew on the Maine state ferry that makes the 15-minute trip to Islesboro saw someone who looked suspicious.

"There was someone who looked like he didn't belong and it turned out later there was a possible match," said Nick Lobkowicz, port captain for the ferry service. Lobkowicz did not see the man, but members of the crew on duty at the time did, he said. "We figured it bears making a phone call. Basically, better safe than sorry," he said.

The company had posted a copy of the bulletin issued this summer indicating that ferries are considered "soft targets" because in some cases they represent large numbers of people in an important transportation mode that is not subject to heightened security like airlines or cruise ships.

Osterrieder said authorities were notified a week and a half ago, sometime after the observation was made in Lincolnville, just north of Camden. But the ferry workers called back more recently, saying they saw a resemblance in pictures that ran in the paper last weekend.

He said there was some indication that the ferry workers had seen two individuals and that they resembled the same two as the men seen in Naples. But a state bulletin issued to transportation authorities said a single person was identified as suspicious in Lincolnville.

Portland Transportation Director Jeff Monroe said waterfront officials were notified Tuesday about the Lincolnville observation and quickly shared it with waterfront businesses.

"We had gotten a notification from the state that as a result of apparently a photograph at the Bangor Daily News over the weekend, three separate employees of the Maine ferry system thought they allegedly, possibly, maybe recognized Jdey," Monroe said. "The individual was taking photographs of the area."

Osterrieder said the sightings do not necessarily mean the terrorists are afoot in Maine.

"Everybody saw Mohamed Atta, too, and 99.9 percent of them did not," he said, referring to a deluge of reports after Sept. 11, 2001, from people who said they had seen Atta in and around Portland before the attacks. Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari drove to South Portland from Boston on Sept. 10, 2001, stayed at the Comfort Inn, and then left Sept. 11 from the Portland International Jetport. They connected with a jumbo jet in Boston, which they hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center's north tower.

Investigators are still trying to determine why the two chose to leave from Portland and whether they had any prior connection to the area. The uncertainty of that is one reason why people who match the description of terror suspects generate intense interest in Maine.

The FBI office in Portland on Friday received reports from people who spotted cars matching the description of the one in Naples, but by mid-afternoon had not received new reports of similar-looking men in the state.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For more information check the FBI Web site, www.fbi.gov.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com

http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/030913suspects.shtml


Zubayr Al-Rimi WANTED	Abderraouf Jdey WANTED	Karim El Mejjati WANTED	A. El Shukrijumah WANTED