State police question Mass. men in terrorist search

NAPLES – Two Massachusetts men on a fishing trip were questioned by Maine State Police on Sunday after police received a tip they fit the description of two suspected terrorists wanted by the FBI, police said.

The FBI this month posted pictures on the FBI Web site of four suspected al-Qaida terrorists the agency was looking for. In response, a couple last week told the FBI they had spotted two men in Naples last Sunday who resembled two of the suspected terrorists.

The FBI then issued a bulletin to New England law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for a car from Massachusetts with the men in it.

On Sunday, Maine State Police received a call that the same men had rented a boat on Long Lake.

When the men came ashore at about 5 p.m., they were greeted by a dozen law enforcement officers, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police.

The men were interviewed separately, McCausland said, and it was determined they were the same men who were reported to the FBI last week. But it was also determined that they were merely enjoying a day of fishing in Maine, he added.

“It was a false alarm,” he said.

McCausland said he did not have the identities of the Massachusetts men, but that they told police they were from a former Soviet republic.