PORTLAND'S JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE RENEWED AMID FLURRY OF ACTIVITY

Council duped about oversight -- keeps 8 Portland officers under FBI's wing

On September 19, Portland's City Council (down to four members of five after the resignation of Charlie Hales) voted unanimously to renew the Portland Police Bureau's agreement to be part of the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force (PJTTF). During four hours of testimony, more than fifty representatives of community groups and concerned citizens opposed the Task Force's apparent gathering of information on political activities without adequate civil liberties protections. Only about 13 testified in favor, including representatives from public transportation corporation Tri-Met and the Christian Coalition. Mayor Katz reassured the packed room from the beginning that she knew the PJTTF would follow the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS), and not to worry because Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden "has access to" the FBI files. Days after the hearing, the Portland Tribune reported that Wyden's office has no power to review PJTTF investigations to make sure such case files do not violate ORS 181.575, which prohibits the gathering of information on people without reasonable suspicion they are engaged in criminal activity. (For background on the PJTTF and the ORS see PPRs #23-25).

The City appeared nervous that last year's huge showing against the PJTTF would build public opinion against the Task Force. Mayor Katz sent out an e-mail newsletter outlining her support for the PJTTF just prior to the vote. Chief Kroeker urged his rubber-stamp advisory group, the Chief's Forum (which rarely votes on anything of substance) to testify in favor of renewal. In similar efforts, the Task Force made a few high-profile arrests in the weeks leading up to and following the hearing, as though to justify their existence (and their half-million dollar price tag).

After hearing practically nothing from the Task Force except that it had expanded its membership in the spring, the Portland Tribune printed an article on August 9 describing the community's efforts to question the PJTTF's activities. Asked how much time Portland Police's Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) actually spends investigating terrorism crimes, Deputy City Attorney David Woboril responded, "I don't know if anyone has an interest in talking about percentages because that might reveal what they are working on."

Four days later, on August 13, the PJTTF issued arrest warrants for four forest activists, arresting two that day with a third turning herself in later in the week. (The fourth, Tre Arrow, is receiving publicity as the suspect who remains at large). The authorities claim the four were involved in an arson at Ray Schoppert Logging company in which logging trucks were set ablaze in June, 2001. At press time, two of the four, Arrow and 20-year-old Jacob Sherman, had been indicted for another arson incident, at Ross Island Sand and Gravel in April, 2001.

Shortly after the arrests of the forest activists and just days prior to the Council hearing, the PJTTF made headlines again by arresting a well-known area Muslim cleric Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye at the airport, claiming his brother's luggage had traces of TNT, and they accused Kariye of "unlawful use of a Social Security number and unlawful possession of a U.S. government document" (Oregonian, September 9). It wasn't until after the Task Force had been renewed that law enforcement admitted the TNT test had been faulty and there was not, in fact, any explosive present. Even then, it took vocal protests from the local Muslim and Somali community and strenuous work by attorneys to get Kariye released on bail.

So here again, as with the firearms and fraud case of Ali Khaled Stetiye (see PPRs #26&27), authorities and the media are referring to relatively minor "crimes" involving documents as "terrorism."

This year's presentation to renew the PJTTF also included Chief Kroeker listing reasons Portland needs to have eight full-time PPB members investigating such "terror" threats. He listed corporations, women's medical facilities, and meat packing plants among those needing protection; he also pointed to the above-mentioned arson of logging trucks, a tree farm arson in May, 2001, and an SUV lot arson in Eugene in March, 2001. Kroeker also displayed quotes from the following supporters of the JTTF: Oregon Industries, Boise Cascade, American Forest Resources, and the National Abortion Federation, whose note was actually thanking a different FBI task force.

Overall, nobody from the power structure ever really acknowledged what several members of the public pointed out--that such results, even if they were valid, could have been achieved even without deputizing eight members of the Portland Police Bureau as Special Federal Officers.

A few days after the renewal, the PJTTF was also involved in arresting and issuing warrants for six Portland-area Muslims accused of attempting to fly to Afghanistan to support Taliban fighters against the U.S. war in 2001. These arrests made national news, and in fact were announced by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft as the indictment of suspected "terrorist cell" members in a "defining day" for anti-terrorism (Willamette Week, October 15).

On August 24, Portland Copwatch co-sponsored a forum with the Washington State University Center for Social and Environmental Justice, held at St. Francis Dining Hall. Over 150 people attended and received information from dozens of sources, also breaking into work-groups designed to promote civil liberties and governmental accountability.

For more information call Portland Copwatch at 503-236-3065.

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