Possible terrorist sighting roils isle

HYANNIS -- A long-sought suspected Al Qaeda member who has eluded a concerted international dragnet may have been sighted at a Nantucket airport this week, prompting the FBI to distribute a picture of the suspect to law enforcement and transportation officials on the island.

Law enforcement authorities declined to disclose details of the possible sighting of Amer el-Maati, who allegedly has talked about hijacking a plane in Canada and flying it into a building in the United States. The sighting was first reported in the Inquirer and Mirror newspaper of Nantucket yesterday, citing unnamed town and airport sources.

The State Police went to the Nantucket Memorial Airport at noon Thursday after the possible sighting was reported, according to Phillip Parent of the Steamship Authority, which runs ferries to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

Later on Thursday, the FBI distributed photographs of Amer el-Maati to airline and ferry employees, as well as island law enforcement officials. The photographs were not released to the media, but an FBI official confirmed the sighting report.

A flier with the photo describes Maati as "armed and dangerous" and says he "is being sought for possible terrorist threats in the United States," said Parent, the Steamship Authority's human resources director.

In May, US authorities released the photographs of Maati, 41, and six others, saying they were possibly planning terrorist attacks on American targets.

According to the FBI, Maati, also known as Amro Badr Eldin Abou, says he has Egyptian and Syrian roots, but was born in Kuwait in 1966. Maati has Canadian citizenship and is a licensed pilot, the FBI has said.

For at least three years, law enforcement authorities in Canada and elsewhere have been trying to track down Maati, but no one had reported any additional sightings by late yesterday afternoon, said an FBI spokewoman and a State Police spokesman.

Representatives of the FBI and the State Police both emphasized that the original reported sighting is unconfirmed.

Gail Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Boston, said Maati's photograph is posted on the counterterrorism page of the FBI website as one of 10 individuals wanted for questioning.

"We get hundreds and hundreds of leads from people who think they saw someone who looked like one of the terrorists," she said. "The vast majority of them turn out to be nothing, but we check them out. That is what we are dealing with here."

Passengers coming off the ferry from Nantucket yesterday said they were not aware of any precautions aboard the boat due to the possible sighting of the terror suspect. Ferry officials said, however, that the crews were put on alert.

Captain Larry Worthington, preparing to skipper the ferry back to Nantucket, said of the crew: "We are at a heightened level of alert." He declined to provide details, but explained that passengers were not being alerted "because that could create a panic."

Passengers interviewed at dockside for the most part shrugged off the threat, saying that dire warnings have become commonplace.

"It seems like there are terrorist warnings whenever you go someplace and wherever you go," said Lorae Boisvert of Wells, Maine.

Another passenger, who declined to give her name, said she recalled a general announcement over the ship's loudspeakers urging passengers to report any unattended packages.

Asked whether she thought the crew should alert passengers about the possible sighting, the woman said: "I went on vacation to get away from terrorism and all that. I would rather not know about it."

Waiting to go to Nantucket, Alexis Ravenscroft, 23, of South Africa, said she had no fear. "He is not going to bomb an island if he can bomb America."

Peggy Smith of Manasquan, N.J., said she "lost lots of friends" in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Still, Smith said, she felt safe boarding a ferry to Nantucket.

"We're just embracing our time going away to Nantucket, happy to be getting away from New York and New Jersey for the time being," she said.

By later yesterday afternoon, no individual resembling Maati had been located by authorities, Marcinkiewicz said.

Parent said State Police provided a photograph of Maati to the Steamship Authority terminal manager in Nantucket at about noon on Thursday.