Posted on 11/21/2001 7:03:42 AM PST by Psalm 73
PORTLAND, Ore. — Homeland defense may have a serious kink in its West Coast armor.
Portland police refuse to cooperate with the U.S. Justice Department's request for help interviewing men who entered the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2000 from countries that have been linked to the Sept. 11 hijackers or were waystations for the Al Qaeda terror network.
Portland's police department claims this part of the Justice Department's sweeping terrorism investigation would violate state law, making Portland the first city to refuse to cooperate with the anti-terrorism effort.
The Justice Department had distributed a list of 5,000 men ages 18 to 33 it wanted to interview about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced earlier this month.
Acting Police Chief Andrew Kirkland said Tuesday the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland asked for city police cooperation last week. He said police denied the request, citing an Oregon law that says no one can be questioned by police unless they are suspected of being involved in a crime.
"The law says, generally, we can interview people that we may suspect have committed a crime," Kirkland said. "But the law does not allow us to go out and arbitrarily interview people whose only offense is immigration or citizenship, and it doesn't give them authority to arbitrarily gather information on them."
Portland FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said Tuesday she couldn't comment on the investigation. Justice Department officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday night.
Charles Gorder, an assistant U.S. attorney in Portland, told The New York Times that the interviews would be completed, with or without help from local police
Arabs and Muslims have criticized the Justice Department's plan to interview the men on the list. Civil rights activists say the action constitutes racial profiling. The Justice Department acknowledges the men are likely to be Arab and Muslim, but says the list wasn't based on ethnic origin.
Kirkland, who is black, said profiling is an issue that hits home for him, but that's not why the Justice Department's request was rejected. "I am sympathetic to that issue from a perspective of growing up African American," he said. "That doesn't factor into any decision to do this or not. We made that decision regarding racial profiling long before Sept. 11. That decision was made for us when the Legislature wrote the law."
I'm familiar with the Constitution. You are missing my point.
The Federal Gov. must provide for a common defense, which is what this is.
This new war is certainly different from anything we have ever faced.
Enemy soldiers who do not wear uniforms and have brought the concept of "total war" to our very shores.
Who hide in our villages and cities, (even in Oregon), disguised as us. Using our system against us.
I'm not happy about the expanding powers of the Feds. In a righteous person's hands it is one thing, but power courrupts, and what about the next administration? Kind of the devil we know Vs the devil we do not know.
Is the solution to handcuff those providing for our defense? Damn, this is a tough one.
Pretty nasty stuff considering you just joined Freerepublic today. Perhaps Truman was a traitor, too. And Lincoln.
Guess you shouldn't have downed that second bottle of cough syrup.
Oregon says we can't detain (question) someone without a reasonable suspicion that they've committed or are about to commit a crime.
AJ says these are individuals whom we would like to detain (question) because we are suspicious that they may be part of a criminal conspiricy and the reason we can't locate them is because they have violated federal law with regard to their visa requirements.
On the surface it sounds as if Oregon is simply being PC.
Who?? Musta been in Kunduz and got disconnected.
Heeheeheeheehee...
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