Posted on 01/09/2002 10:45:37 AM PST by SAMWolf
Oregon has been a hub of terrorist fund-raising, particularly Corvallis and Portland State University, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith says, and he has asked the U.S. Justice Department to take action.
Smith says he was relaying unclassified information he learned in confidential security briefings with Justice Department and FBI officials since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"We have had in our state for some time a significant fund-raising apparatus for al-Qaida," Smith told The Oregonian's editorial board. "I'll leave it there."
Al-Qaida is the terrorist network tied to Osama bin Laden and thought to be responsible for the suicide attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.
FBI officials in Oregon would not confirm or deny Smith's assertions.
"We don't talk about open investigations," said Phil Donegan, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Portland. "The senator is free to say what he wants to say."
In answers to follow-up questions, Smith singled out Corvallis and PSU as places where terrorists have raised money. Asked whether more fund-raising was occurring in Oregon than in other states, he said, "disappointingly, yes."
But Smith, who is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to elaborate further, saying the details are classified. Nor would he say what sort of action has been or is being taken by federal officials in Oregon.
Senators are free to ask the U.S. attorney general for an investigation, but "we don't get our cases from senators," Donegan said. He said fund-raising for terror groups has been a concern of the FBI, but that it occurs in almost every state. He could not compare the level of activity in Oregon with other states.
Jon Mandaville, who directs the Middle Eastern Studies Center at PSU, said his office has not been contacted by law enforcement officials about possible terrorist fund-raising. Nor has Christine Sproul, who heads the international education program at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
Both said Muslim students have been questioned, but that has been part of a widely reported national investigation.
"If Senator Smith knows something specific about PSU, I'd be interested to hear it, because I certainly haven't heard it," Mandaville said.
Smith's second word on ties It is the second time in as many months that the first-term Republican, who is up for re-election this year, has indicated he has inside information about terrorist ties to Oregon. In December, Smith told reporters in Salem that people connected to the terror attacks could be in the state.
"I have reason to believe there are some finding aid and comfort here in the state of Oregon who have been a party to terrorist activities that found ultimate expression in New York City," Smith said at the time.
His comments to The Oregonian this week went one step further, specifically naming al-Qaida and tying the group to fund-raising activities in Corvallis and Portland.
Smith said similar information was uncovered years ago by Steven Emerson, a controversial journalist who has warned for years that Islamic extremists in the United States were plotting a terrorist attack against the nation.
Emerson's award-winning 1994 PBS documentary, "Jihad in America," referred briefly to Oregon. In it, a man described as a fund-raiser for a worldwide terrorist network says he collected $9,500 in donations in Corvallis some time before 1988.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, copies of "Jihad in America" were distributed to all 535 members of Congress and "played a real role" in winning passage of the recent anti-terrorism bill, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told The Washington Post.
Emerson, who appears regularly on television as a consultant to NBC News, has been criticized, particularly by Islamic groups, as being anti-Muslim. A day after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, Emerson incorrectly theorized on television that the culprits were Arabs.
Smith said he is concerned about the United States letting down its guard when it comes to domestic terrorist activities, an issue he raised with President Bush during Bush's visit to Oregon on Saturday. "One of the things I emphasized to President Bush is not just fighting terrorism abroad, but at home as well," Smith said.
Smith thinks federal agents in Oregon are hamstrung by an Oregon Supreme Court ruling, known as the Gatti decision, that led to the shutdown of many undercover operations in the state. He is working with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on legislation that would allow the undercover work to resume.
Smith faces a potentially difficult re-election challenge from Democrat Bill Bradbury, Oregon's secretary of state. Bradbury's main campaign aide, Jeremy Wright, said Smith's discussion of sensitive law enforcement matters raises questions about his motives.
"We certainly hope he is not engaging in politics with matters of Oregon and national security," Wright said. "We're not accusing him of that, we're just hoping he isn't."
Rename Oregon to Little Kabul?
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