State confronts terrorism reports Communication issues persist

AUGUSTA – Communication between state and federal agencies dealing with terrorism was supposed to be an accomplished fact. However, at a meeting of the state’s Homeland Security Council this week it was clear that while the various agencies are talking, the sort of seamless integration of intelligence called for by the 9-11 commission is far from a reality.

“I was surprised at some of the statistics [the FBI] shared with me last week,” said Art Cleaves, chairman of the state’s Homeland Security Council and director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency. “There has been a lot more activity in Maine than I thought.”

Jim Osterreich, the supervising senior resident agent for the FBI’s Portland office, told the council the FBI has investigated 500 reports of “suspicious activity” in Maine in the last two years, with three agents assigned full time to the investigations. He said the reports came directly from Mainers contacting the FBI as well as from police agencies that passed on reports to the agency.

“Just about 99.99 percent of every call we have had has not been related in any form to terrorism,” Osterreich said in an interview. “Almost everything that has come to us we have run to ground and it was not terrorism-related.”

While some tips “have proven fruitful,” Osterreich said he could not discuss any details of the investigations.

He did say that most of the tips that were investigated came from the public. Some, however, came from other intelligence agencies. But regardless of where the tips come from, all reports of suspicious activities are taken seriously by the FBI and are investigated, he stressed.

The Homeland Security Council was created by the governor to coordinate state homeland security policies. The council is composed of key state officials such as the head of the state police and the director of MEMA.

Osterreich was invited to the council meeting on Monday to discuss the FBI’s cooperation and communication with state officials.

During the meeting, Osterreich did reveal that one of the FBI’s investigations involved questioning Muslim inmates in Maine as part of a national probe concerned with identifying “jihadists” at correctional facilities across the country. The term jihad generally refers to a holy war when used by extremist Muslims.

No details were shared and no other investigations discussed, but it was made clear that none of the suspicious activities represented specific threats to the state.

There was some discussion, however, about more general threats to the country as a whole.

“We know of the threats to disrupt the election process in this country,” Cleaves said, “and we must take those seriously.”

In addition to election activities, council members identified the visits of the cruise liner Queen Mary 2 to Bar Harbor and Portland as events that will get extra security attention from state officials in coming weeks.

Bill Libby, commissioner of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, said the generalized threats have been extended to “soft” military-related targets such as veterans hospitals and armed forces recruiting centers. Libby is also the state adjutant general and commander of the state National Guard. He didn’t say what action if any the state may take concerning those threats.

The 9-11 commission called for state and local law enforcement agencies to be part of an integrated effort to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. From comments at the council meeting, Maine has made some progress in cooperation among all levels of government.

“We are talking,” Cleaves said, “but we need to do a better job at all levels.”

The council also was briefed this week on a Web site developed by the Maine Community Policing Institute that can be accessed from links on several police department Web sites. Bill Schneider, assistant U.S. attorney for Maine, gave a brief demonstration and praised the Web site for providing a tutorial for the average citizen about terrorism and how to help investigators.

“This is just a great site,” he said. “It provides a lot of information and helps the public know what will help us in fighting terrorists.”

The tutorial takes about 45 minutes to complete. The direct link to the tutorial is http://jpmaweb.breezecentral.com/p39992879/