April 22, 2005

The One True b!X on 22 Apr 2005

As of this comment a combined AP/KGW story headlines this as Portland already having pulled out, which is inaccurate. However, the link to that story off of KGW's main page has been changed to say that Potter "plans" to withdraw.

KATU is carrying the AP story with a similarly-incorrect headline.

torridjoe on 22 Apr 2005

so b!x: does this mean that the officers will keep top-secret clearance, but only work on cases with the benefit of secret-level information? In other words, that they'd be allowed to know more, but wouldn't ask? Is that how they've agreed to keep the information levels equal between cops and Potter?

This really seems to be a compromise portrayed on both sides as a friendly impasse. Or am I just reading this wrong?

The One True b!X on 22 Apr 2005

As stated in my report, the officers retain their Top Secret clearance, but only as a sort of standby in the event there's a threat of imminent terrorist threat which would require them to make use of it.

Presumably, what that means is that in the event of such an imminent crisis, the officers would need to be able to oeprate directly out of FBI headquarters here in Portland, and to do that they need TS clearance.

But as a day-to-day matter of normal operations, they will functionally have only Secret clearance, the same as the Chief and the Mayor.

allehseya on 22 Apr 2005

I am confused. As I understand it, the officers would be re-assigned and yet retain a 'stand-by' top secret clearance? And in the event of the emergency when they are called upon -- Potter would have the same clearance the officers have?

If this is the case -- someone explain the comment:

(when asked)what had happened to obtaining "top secret" clearance himself, Potter said that he had never asked for "top secret" clearance. "I said I wanted the same security clearance the officers have," he explained.

I mean -- he is asking for top secret clearance isnt he?

Also -- what about the City Attorney's clearance at such a time to ensure state compliance? Would he also be allowed to request the top-secret clearance that the Officer's and Potter would have (assuming that the officers are given Top Secret clearance at all in such a time?

Sorry if I missed this in your report...

Stephanie Stephens on 22 Apr 2005

One concern that I had while listening to the live feed was the FBI's offer to "train all 900 Portland police officers" regarding terrorism. I am not sure what this training will entail, but the relationship between the Muslim community and other targeted immigrant/refugee groups is already strained. Will we have 900 officers "trained" on spotting the next Imam Kariye or Brandon Mayfield? Will these communities have a role in this training? I hope Tom Potter and Chief Foxworth will consider cultural sensitivity and dismantling racism training in addition to their terror curriculum.

The One True b!X on 22 Apr 2005

Potter will be obtaining just Secret clearance. The premise, as I understand it, is that since day-to-day interaction, if necessary, with the FBI, will be restricted to that level, and so for oversight purposes clearance equivalence will be maintained.

The point of the officers technically retaining Top Secret clearance is so that if there's a clear and imminent threat which requires an immediate and cooperative response by law enforcement in the area, the officers will be able to participate in responding to that imminent threat.

The key there is imminent -- not something that's going to happen on anything even remotely close to a regular basis.

There was no mention this morning of the City Attorney issue.

allehseya on 22 Apr 2005

The point of the officers technically retaining Top Secret clearance is so that if there's a clear and imminent threat which requires an immediate and cooperative response by law enforcement in the area, the officers will be able to participate in responding to that imminent threat.

Assuming that such a scenario were to occur -- is it the stance of the City that Potter and the city attorney would then have Top Secret clearance as well?

The One True b!X on 22 Apr 2005

While that dd not come up this morning, at last month's hearing Jordan expressed a willingness to work to get Potter temporary TS clearance in the event the JTTF-assigned officers needed to access TS information.

I'm checking with the Mayor's office to see if under the new protocol, in the event of an imminent threat which requires Portland officers to make use of their TS clearance, the Mayor will be given such temporary clearance in order to maintain equivalency.

CW on 22 Apr 2005

I think it speaks volumes that USA Immergut was not present at today's press conference. Had she felt it important to validate the outcome of the discussions she facilited over the past few weeks, I imagine she would have made it a priority to have been there. In my own relatively limited experience as a mediator, it's been my observation that "agreeing to diagree," isn't so much a solution to a dispute as it is a means of not having to abandon one's entrenched position and delve into the all-important underlying interests of a conflict. If the underlying interests of the City and the FBI were improved oversight of the JTTF and continued invovment of PPB resouces in Federal investigations, respectively, then it would appear that neither party's interests (and hence the public's) are met by the outcome announced today. I find it unlikely that most Portlanders will see today's outcome as sufficent, let alone acceptable . . . but perhaps it was a lose/lose situation to begin with.

Jack Peek on 22 Apr 2005

I am not sure what this training will entail, but the relationship between the Muslim community and other targeted immigrant/refugee groups is already strained. Will we have 900 officers "trained" on spotting the next Imam Kariye or Brandon Mayfield? Will these communities have a role in this training? I hope Tom Potter and Chief Foxworth will consider cultural sensitivity and dismantling racism training in addition to their terror curriculum.

A post from another view: This tells the facts that none of you wish to look at that there is reason to view "some" not all groups of people as a clear danger..IT JUST GOT EASIER HERE IN PDX.

The others in the room thought the story was quite amusing, judging from the laughter. The Imam stood up and told the group that this was a kind of peaceful civil disobedience that should be encouraged, and commended Khaled and his friends for their efforts.

He pointed out that it was through this kind of civil disobedience that ethnic profiling would fail.

One of the other men, Ahmed from Kuwait, gave a brief account of his friend Eyad, who had finally gone to Iraq. Ahmed was in email contact with Eyad, and hoped by the following week to be able to bring them more information about the state of the “mujahideen” in Iraq.

As the meeting drew to a close, the Imam gave a brief speech calling for the protection of Allah on the mujahideen fighting for Islam throughout the world, and reminded everyone that it was their duty as Muslims to continue in the path of jihad, whether it was simple efforts like those of Khaled and his friends, or the actual physical fighting of men like Eyad.

As the meeting broke up, several women in hijab came in the room, and two of them sat with me. They were very warm and friendly and welcoming, and appeared to be clearly thrilled that I was there. They asked me questions about who I was, and why I was interested in the session.

By the time the session began, there were half a dozen American women, four of them African American. Where the previous session had definite anti-American tones, this session was all American and Apple Pie. The earlier session had been in Arabic; this one was in English.

The woman leading the session, Nafisa, told of the concerns she had regarding her daughters in the public school system. She complained about the influence of the MTV culture, and seemed concerned about the rampant sexuality that pervaded all facets of American life, from TV to movies and on into the school system.

She explained her personal solution – the local Islamic school, beginning with kindergarten. Instead of worrying about her daughters dressing provocatively and behaving inappropriately with boys, she talked about the modest school uniforms that they wore, and the single-gender classes that her daughters attended.

She then began to discuss Islam, focusing on the commonalities it has with Christianity. The sales pitch had clearly begun. While in the previous section, then men had quoted over and over again sura from the Qu’ran calling for violent jihad, the women’s session focused on the “gentler” side of Islam.

The same Imam who demanded that the men continue in the path of jihad did a complete 180 degree turn in this session, stressing instead the suras that promoted the “brotherhood” between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. “After all, we worship the same God, and follow the teachings in the books he gave each of us. We are all the same, we are all People of the Book,” he stressed.

The differences between the sessions were striking. Clearly the second session was a recruiting session.

Were the women aware of what was being taught in the first session? Certainly those women who spoke Arabic should have been.

The reason for concern is obvious: two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm, and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the wellbeing of their children.

But the Arabic speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.

It shows clearly that as much as we’d like to pretend it hasn’t, Jihad has reached small-town USA. This mosque isn’t in Washington, DC, or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep south.

And if it’s in this tiny little quiet southern town, it’s probably in your hometown too.

From Northeast Intelligence Network:

As always said here, this is about "oversight" the mission of this mayor is to not only protect civil rights, but the very lifes those civil rights are designed to cover..."It just got easier for Jihad in PDX.

torridjoe on 22 Apr 2005

I'm not sure why it just got easier. Federal resource level: static. Emergent needs resource level: static. If you'd like to say it just got two warm bodies easier--I guess. I think it's awfully hard to quantify that concept, though.

The more I look at this, the more it baffles me that Potter and Jordan didn't show up shaking hands and grinning. Obviously neither got what they wanted--a huge success! Seriously: Potter got day to day City oversight back, and almost never will be subject to less info than his subordinates. On the other hand, the City Attorney is still shut out, and when the b!x hits the fan, he'll be helpless again. Jordan lost control of two cops, and suffers a pride hit for his office, the FBI and the administration in general. But he didn't give anybody better clearance, and he'll have the bodies when he really needs them.

You must be some kind of hardass cynic not to even -try- to spin your own press conference positively.

Josef Schneider on 23 Apr 2005

Well. I tried to read Mr Peek's post, but the lack of context made it unintelligible.

The opening paragraph appeared to be a quote from a previous post, but Mr Peek gives it no explicit introduction and there are no quotation marks nor other formatting that would have indicated that it was a quote and where it was from.

From paragraph 3 on the post appears to contain a quote from another piece entirely -- again without an explicit introduction from Mr Peek, nor any formatting that would indicate what was a quote, nor any attribution as to where the quote was from.

The not-explicitly-quoted-but-seemingly-quoted paragraphs read like an account of a meeting of some sort. What organization was holding the meeting, who attended it, where it was held, and why this is relevant or why we should care is not stated.

If you want others to read your posts, Mr Peek, please clean up the formatting and try to make plain what you are trying to say. Do not assume so much prior knowledge of what you are trying to say on the part of the audience.

This post (like some others of yours) read like the products of a scattered and disorganized mind.

Jack Peek on 23 Apr 2005

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:

Jihad comes to Small Town USA
By Laura Mansfield, Associate Director, Senior Investigative Analyst

It happened again this week. I came out of the office to find a flyer under my windshield wipers inviting me to a special informational presentation on God and family values, and how to bring them back to the forefront in America.

I’m a parent so the flyer caught my interest. But as an analyst for the Northeast Intelligence Network, my eyes were riveted to the address on the flyer: the session was being held at a nearby mosque.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided it would be a good time for some on site investigations of the mosque. In order to not attract undue attention, I dressed conservatively, wearing a navy jumper with a long sleeve white blouse, and low heels. I debated whether or not to put on a hijab (head scarf) then decided not to; after all, I was going to “learn”, not to pretend I was a Muslim.

I checked the mosque schedule on the web, and discovered that there was going to be an Arabic language session an hour before. So I showed up an hour early. The imam met me at the door, and told me that the presentation didn’t start for an hour, and suggested I come back in an hour. Fortunately I had anticipated this. I explained that since I had quite a bit of reading to do for a class I was taking. “Can I just sit here and read?”

He hesitated a moment, then agreed. I sat in the back of the room, with my book open, and made a mental note to remember to turn the pages every so often, as I listened to the speakers in Arabic.

The first speaker was the head of the Muslim Students’ Association at the nearby university. Although I missed the beginning of the discussion, I caught up quickly. He was talking about the problems he had encountered on a recent trip, when TSA flagged him for extra screening. He joked about the fact that they had stopped him for extensive screening. He had anticipated that he would be screened and he had filled his carryon luggage with printouts of the Qu’ran from the internet, and had 15 or 16 CD’s labeled in Arabic, and he had a notebook computer with him.

As he expected he was delayed; he thought it was very amusing that while several TSA personnel were scrutinizing is personal belongings that is classmate from Jordan was able to walk through security, along with his American girlfriend, without any problems whatsoever.

One of the men said, in Arabic “Blonde Americans are good for something!” Another man advised him to be cautious, since there was an American woman in the room. The Imam spoke up and told everyone that I didn’t speak Arabic.

At that point another student took the podium. His name was Khaled, and he began to recount his recent trip to New York City. Khaled and three of his companions had gone to New York for several days in January. He told of how uncomfortable his trip up to NYC had been. He felt like he was being watched, and thought he was the victim of racial profiling.

Khaled and his friends were pretty unhappy about it, and while in New York, they came up with a plan to “teach a lesson” to the passengers and crew. You can imagine the story Khaled told. He described how he and his friends whispered to each other on the flight, made simultaneous visits to the restroom, and generally tried to “spook” the other passengers. He laughed when he described how several women were in tears, and one man sitting near him was praying.

The others in the room thought the story was quite amusing, judging from the laughter. The Imam stood up and told the group that this was a kind of peaceful civil disobedience that should be encouraged, and commended Khaled and his friends for their efforts.

He pointed out that it was through this kind of civil disobedience that ethnic profiling would fail.

One of the other men, Ahmed from Kuwait, gave a brief account of his friend Eyad, who had finally gone to Iraq. Ahmed was in email contact with Eyad, and hoped by the following week to be able to bring them more information about the state of the “mujahideen” in Iraq.

As the meeting drew to a close, the Imam gave a brief speech calling for the protection of Allah on the mujahideen fighting for Islam throughout the world, and reminded everyone that it was their duty as Muslims to continue in the path of jihad, whether it was simple efforts like those of Khaled and his friends, or the actual physical fighting of men like Eyad.

As the meeting broke up, several women in hijab came in the room, and two of them sat with me. They were very warm and friendly and welcoming, and appeared to be clearly thrilled that I was there. They asked me questions about who I was, and why I was interested in the session.

By the time the session began, there were half a dozen American women, four of them African American. Where the previous session had definite anti-American tones, this session was all American and Apple Pie. The earlier session had been in Arabic; this one was in English.

The woman leading the session, Nafisa, told of the concerns she had regarding her daughters in the public school system. She complained about the influence of the MTV culture, and seemed concerned about the rampant sexuality that pervaded all facets of American life, from TV to movies and on into the school system.

She explained her personal solution – the local Islamic school, beginning with kindergarten. Instead of worrying about her daughters dressing provocatively and behaving inappropriately with boys, she talked about the modest school uniforms that they wore, and the single-gender classes that her daughters attended.

She then began to discuss Islam, focusing on the commonalities it has with Christianity. The sales pitch had clearly begun. While in the previous section, then men had quoted over and over again sura from the Qu’ran calling for violent jihad, the women’s session focused on the “gentler” side of Islam.

The same Imam who demanded that the men continue in the path of jihad did a complete 180 degree turn in this session, stressing instead the suras that promoted the “brotherhood” between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. “After all, we worship the same God, and follow the teachings in the books he gave each of us. We are all the same, we are all People of the Book,” he stressed.

The differences between the sessions were striking. Clearly the second session was a recruiting session.

Were the women aware of what was being taught in the first session? Certainly those women who spoke Arabic should have been.

The reason for concern is obvious: two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm, and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the wellbeing of their children.

But the Arabic speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.

It shows clearly that as much as we’d like to pretend it hasn’t, Jihad has reached small-town USA. This mosque isn’t in Washington, DC, or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep south.

And if it’s in this tiny little quiet southern town, it’s probably in your hometown too.

B!X chooses to diss the "NORTHEAST INTELLIGENCE NETWORK".....NATO does not!

The One True b!X on 23 Apr 2005

B!X chooses to diss the "NORTHEAST INTELLIGENCE NETWORK".....NATO does not!

Oh good lord. Jack, that NATO site is a directory of resources which is chock full of tons of links, all submitted by other people for review. That review is probably along the lines of, "Is this porn? No. Okay, add it."

Suzii on 23 Apr 2005

Ok, so this "horrible threat" Jack Peek's been moaning about turns out to be some people who, when hassled for perfectly reasonable behavior, do not get mad or fight back; they innocently tweak their harrassers and laugh later in private -- trying not to disturb their neighbors who weren't personally involved in the hassling -- about how even big, intimidating American Authorities are afraid of their own shadows.

Oh, and they're aware of and interested in international events.

Sounds like perfectly healthy and desirable behavior from a disenfranchised group of people.

Tenskwatawa on 26 Apr 2005

-
The following appears in the April 26 news blog of my longtime friend, Danny Schechter, the news dissector:

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHO IS A TERRORIST?
The Bush administration's terrorist list excludes right-wing groups:
"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not include extreme right-wing groups, some of which have ties to the Republican Party, on its list of potential terrorist threats, according to a report last month by the Congressional Quarterly, a publication with high-level sources in Congress and the federal government."
www.wsws.org

Sort of gives new meaning to the previous comment here:

It just got easier for Jihad in PDX.
From Jack Peek On April 22, 2005

Breaking: Portland Withdraws Cops from FBI JTTF on 22 Apr 2005

From b!x at Portland Communique, the rather confusing skinny on Potter's