Maine connection to attacks probed

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AUGUSTA – As the federal investigation of terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., continued to unfold Wednesday, FBI inquiries in Maine fueled speculation on just how deeply the state figured in the planning of four airline hijackings.

FBI officials in Boston referred all media inquiries to the agency’s Washington office, which did not return calls. But Gov. Angus S. King and Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood confirmed that a silver 2001 Nissan Altima that may have been used by two of the suspected hijackers had been recovered from the Portland International Jetport.

Both King and Chitwood said the FBI believed the pair may have flown to Logan International Airport in Boston where they boarded one of the two jets that were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center.

In Bangor, FBI agents questioned a Unicel employee who refused to sell cellular telephones to four men, described by a salesperson as Arabs, after they failed to provide adequate identification, according to a company official. The incident took place several days before Tuesday’s attack.

“The FBI has interviewed people at our office in relation to that and that’s basically all I can say,” said Rick O’Connor, a vice president of Unicel.

ABC News reported Wednesday that Chitwood had confirmed that four of the suspected terrorists had crossed into Maine through Jackman.

But Chitwood said late Wednesday afternoon that his remarks had been misconstrued by the network, and he further maintained that the ABC reports quoting his theories about a Jackman connection were erroneous.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday a Jackman businessman told the Bangor Daily News that a group of four Arabic men had purchased gas at his Moose Mart Store in Jackman on Aug. 17.

After hearing that the terrorists involved in Tuesday’s attack flew out of Portland International Jetport, Moose Mart owner Raymond Stevens contacted Immigration and Naturalization Services officials at the Jackman border, located 16 miles north of his store.

“I get a lot of foreigners through here because we are the first store they get to when they cross the border, but I spent some time in the Middle East and I don’t often get people from the Middle East in here,” Stevens said.

Stevens thought about the Arabic men after watching the coverage of the terrorist attacks on Tuesday. When he later learned that two of them flew out of Portland before boarding the fatal connecting flights out of Logan airport, he rifled through his credit card receipts for last month.

Wednesday morning he said he turned a receipt over to INS.

“They asked me for a description of the car they were driving, but I couldn’t recall … I do believe [the car’s occupants] told me they were from the United Arab Emirates,” he said.

What Stevens could give officials was a name, due to the credit card receipt. He declined to disclose the name to the media on Wednesday.

Another unconfirmed media report said the group had proceeded from Jackman to Bangor where they attempted to board a charter to Boston. A lack of seats supposedly prevented all four from boarding and the group reportedly split up, with two men proceeding to Portland by car.

Bangor International Airport officials said that information could not be confirmed, and Bangor police also dismissed the report as speculation.

King and Chitwood confirmed that two of the FBI’s suspects had boarded US Airways Flight 5930 which left the Portland International Jetport at 6 a.m. Tuesday due to arrive in Boston 50 minutes later. Chitwood said he had seen the two suspicious men on an airport surveillance tape viewed with FBI officials.

“Both appeared to be in their mid- to late 30s. They had dark hair, olive-dark complexion and were casually dressed,” Chitwood said. “One seemed to be carrying a strap with a small bag attached and the other guy was just picking his bag up. I’m not going to get caught up in a profile, but they weren’t from Maine.”

King told reporters the car believed to be used by the suspected hijackers had been impounded by the Maine State Police who were holding the vehicle Wednesday in Augusta for the FBI.

The rental car, bearing Massachusetts plates, was described by Michael Sperry, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, as a silver-blue, Nissan Altima. State police were examining the vehicle for evidence Wednesday night.

King was awakened shortly after midnight Tuesday and informed of the FBI’s interest in the car. He said the vehicle’s occupants produced New Jersey licenses, although it was unclear Wednesday whether they were real or counterfeit. How the car entered Maine remained a matter of conjecture.

“We haven’t yet determined where it came from, how it got here or how long it had been rented,” King said. “Obviously, it’s pretty clear that this information provides significant leads to the FBI in terms of who these people were, where they came from and who they were connected with. I know the FBI will be following up on those leads.”

Meanwhile, FBI agents reportedly were questioning innkeepers in Portland, border patrol agents in Calais, and administrators at ferry terminals in Bar Harbor and Portland in an effort to determine how the suspected hijackers entered the state. Chitwood said every FBI inquiry spawned new speculation throughout the state.

“The FBI’s playing it very close to the vest,” he said. “And I’m not even identifying these guys as suspects. But the FBI showed a strong interest in them.”

Maine Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said Wednesday FBI agents were in the state investigating the terrorist attack and any connection to Maine. McCausland said a team of Maine State Police detectives were aiding in the investigation.

Wednesday afternoon he had no information that the terrorist suspects were in Bangor.

“I’ve heard all of those reports, but we have no information to indicate any of them are true,” McCausland said.

“They are gathering information and pursuing leads,” he said. “They’re trying to find out where they entered the state and what they did and where they’ve been.”

Bangor police Detective Lt. Tim Reid said his department had no information to link the terrorist suspects to Bangor.

Reid stressed that the department had received a few calls regarding sightings of Arabic people, but that people were highly suspicious of anyone of Middle Eastern descent considering the highly publicized tragedy.

Just because someone is Arabic doesn’t make them a suspect, the detective cautioned.