Is this a hoax or are "nine Arab speaking men" intending to take out a Linn County dam?

This was in the paper. Makes me nervous in one way, but it's really very vague. Should we be worried here in Linn County, and on the watch for "nine Arab speaking men" who might be intending to blow up or do something to a Linn or Marion County dam or reservoir?

I can't tell which county these "nine Arab speaking men" were in, allegedly photographing a dam and access roads, from this brief paper report on it. Because if a dam is going to be blown up by terrorists, I'd much rather have it be the one on highway 22 in Marion County. That's Detroit Reservoir and dam, right? I get that one and the one down in Cottage Grove mixed up.

The other option is Foster Dam up there above Sweet Home, which would take out a lot of Linn County from the dam to the Willamette. Don't want that, because I'm between Foster and the Willamette. I really did not think we had nine Arab speaking men in Linn County. We may not even have nine men who can speak grammatically correct English in Linn County. Just kidding there. Sort of.

But, such a report as below, with very VERY vague facts, is slightly nervously interesting. I won't lose sleep over it, but I hope they do more reporting on this, if it is indeed a threat. I sure don't like to think there might be terrorists right here in Oregon plotting. I hope it's a hoax. Or that it's the result of some drug induced paranoia on someone's part.


"Homeland Security — The Marion County Sheriff’s Office contacted the Linn County Sheriff’s Office about

4:15 p.m. Sunday to say their office had been told that nine male, “Arab-speaking” people had taken photographs of a dam unspecified in a media log, and two deputies were en route.

A woman on the scene “received pictures” from the person who had contacted Marion County. She and the county were going to forward the photos to Homeland Security and other appropriate agencies. The photographs showed people and access roads.

No other information was available