BURLINGTON — Federal authorities made a case of mistaken identity when they rounded up about 25 North African immigrants during a Sept. 21 sweep through three Boone County apartment complexes.

        The FBI was following up on a tip — now thought to be erroneous — that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers had been living in Northern Kentucky.

        It is believed that none of the immigrants detained — all identified by authorities as Muslims from Mauritania, an Islamic nation in Northwest Africa — is still being held by federal officials, although a local investigation by the Boone County Sheriff's office is continuing.

        Ed Boldt, a spokesman in the FBI's Cincinnati office, said that when groups of federal agents rounded up the immigrants, they believed at least some were connected to the plane hijackings and terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

        “Our belief was that at least one or as many as three of the hijackers may have resided in Northern Kentucky over the last nine months,” Mr. Boldt said.

        That notion was at least partially based on witnesses who viewed photographs of the hijackers and then told authorities they had possibly seen some or all of the men in apartment complexes in Florence and Burlington and in businesses in the area.

        “But after executing search warrants and interviewing many, many folks in the (Boone County) neighborhoods, we are convinced and satisfied that initial photograph identifications, while made in good faith, were mistaken,”' Mr. Boldt said.

        All but four of those detained and questioned were released the same night they were rounded up.

        Those four were held for a number of days by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in southern Indiana near Louisville, said Rusty O'Brien, a Louisville attorney whose firm represented some of the men.

        None of the men was charged with any crime, and he said Tuesday that he thought all had been released.

        Mr. O'Brien also said the men were being detained because of possible immigration violations and not because of the terrorist attacks.

More - and better - police in Luken's anti-crime plan
Adding police on back burner
City's gun lawsuit up to Ohio justices
Of bonfires and bonding
Adamowski says city schools rebounding
Board candidates compared
Ex-CIA man calls attacks opportunity
Guard may be at airport by Friday
Lawrenceburg in emergency
Loveland moves forward on YMCA
Survey: Help for disabled lacking
Town hall meetings: Where are the poor?
Tristate A.M. Report
Two area officers picked for award
SAMPLES: Ky.'s secret
HOWARD: Some good news
Court allegedly withheld tape
Mason hires principal
Monroe school proposal firmed up
Ohio man will take helm of Aryan Nations
Cabaret, restaurant launch Levee
Covington sees plans for water park
Lt. governor backs gun safety
N. Kentucky schools making their mark
N.Ky. raid a bum steer
Power plant gets OK
School to offer day care
Schools shine on new tests