Tolerant Portland has reputation as haven for radicals

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Tolerant Portland has reputation as haven for radicals Gillian Flaccus; The Associated Press PORTLAND - The City of Roses, known for cozy coffee shops that give shelter from the winter drizzle, is also known as a refuge for religious and political radicals - a reputation that was reinforced last week when federal officials broke up what they called a terrorist cell. "We have always been a little different in our thinking," said Gary Perlstein, a Portland State University criminology professor and terrorism expert. "We are a very tolerant population, and so we wouldn't ask too many questions."

 

That tolerance helped make Portland and its neighbors a center for environmental activism, including the so-called "eco-terrorists" of the Earth Liberation Front, and also drew fugitives from 1960s- and 1970s-era groups such as the Weathermen and the Symbionese Liberation Army.

 

Portland's open-mindedness has also fostered a sizable Muslim community of up to 20,000 people, which is relatively large for a city of 1.5 million, experts say.

 

A magnet for Muslims was a Middle Eastern Studies program at Portland State University, which from the 1950s offered one of the first Arabic curricula in the United States.

 

All these factors may have contributed to a relatively large number of arrests of alleged terrorists and their allies in Portland since the Sept. 11 attacks last year.

 

Three native-born American Muslims - Jeffrey Leon Battle, October Martinique Lewis and Patrice Lumumba Ford - were arrested Friday in Portland on charges they conspired to wage war against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and provide support to al-Qaida.

 

Another with ties to Portland, Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, was arrested in a Detroit suburb, and two other men, both with links to Portland, are still at large.

 

A seventh man, Khalid Ali Steitiye, was arrested Oct. 24, 2001, in a Portland suburb on firearms and immigration charges and is named as an unindicted co-conspirator of the group arrested Friday.

 

A Somali man, Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, was arrested Sept. 8 on charges of Social Security fraud as he prepared to board a flight at Portland International Airport. Initial tests showed traces of explosives in his luggage, according to prosecutors; further tests ruled that out.

 

FBI agents said they will continue their Portland investigation and believe there may be a recruiter within the city's Muslim community.

 

"The investigation is still very active," said Charles Mathews, special agent in charge for the Portland FBI. "We're obviously working to identify others who were similarly situated as these and may have traveled from Oregon to fight against American forces."

 

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who received a briefing on the investigation from federal agents Saturday, said afterwards that Oregon's tolerance makes it easier for terrorists to operate within its borders. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Smith said he had seen classified documents that indicated that those involved in the attacks had "found aid and comfort" in Oregon.

 

"We are open, tolerant and a remote place. Because of that we've been a safe harbor for people with terrorism and murder on their mind," Smith said Saturday.

 

The Middle East Studies program at Portland State University was attracting a flow of Middle Eastern visitors, professors and exchange students as early at the 1950s, said Grant Farr, a sociology professor and former director of the Middle East Center at the school.

 

The city was also named by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as a "receiving city" for immigrant groups because of its small size and liberal ways and has sizable Somali, Iranian and Afghan populations as a result, Farr said.

 

Farr said prominent Saudi Arabian families sent their children to PSU for years, and until the early 1990s, many former students maintained summer homes in Portland.

 

"A number of Saudi royal family members went to school here, and so they like it and they'll buy a little villa here and spend their summers here," he said. "Like anything, the university creates kind of a synergy around things."

 

Muslim radicals are not the only groups from the fringes to seek refuge in Portland and other Oregon cities.

 

The radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front until recently had its main spokesman in Portland, and many anarchists live in Portland and in Eugene, its southern neighbor. The ELF was recently named a terrorist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Perlstein said.

 

Michael Bortin, a former supporter of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was arrested in January at his Portland home to face charges from a 1975 SLA robbery in which a bystander was killed.

 

And in 1987, Silas Trim Bissell, a member of the militant 1960s anti-war group the Weathermen, was arrested in Eugene after spending 17 years as a fugitive.

 

"Portland is a good place to hide," Perlstein said.(Published 12:30AM, October 7th, 2002) "Live in peace with the animals. Animals bring love to our hearts, and warmth to our souls."

Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

 

 

 

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