Terror suspect previously worked in mayor's office
10/04/2002
By JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff
One of three suspected terrorists arrested in Portland Friday had previously worked in the city mayor's office on three different occasions -- once in 1986 and twice in the late 1990s, city officials said.
Patrice Lumumba Ford worked as an intern in Mayor Vera Katz's office on two occasions: the first time from May to July, 1998 and again in September, 1999. Ford had also worked as an intern for former Mayor Bud Clark in 1986.
"Today's events have a surprising dimension for my office," Katz said.
Katz said Ford last had contact with members of her staff a year ago. She said some of his comments at the time raised concerns.
"The substance of his renewed interactions with my office concerned my staff enough that in August 2001 we forwarded a summary of Mr. Ford's contacts to the Portland Police Bureau for evaluation," she said.
Katz declined to comment on exactly what Ford told her office, saying the FBI has asked her not to discuss specifics about Ford's statements.
Ford appeared late Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland for arraignment and entered a not guilty plea to terrorism conspiracy charges before Judge Janice M. Stewart.
Ford's father, Kent Ford, said his son was named after the African resistance leader and first president of Congo Patrice Lumumba.
The elder Ford said his son attended graduate school in international relations at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.
The younger Ford also speaks Mandarin Chinese and spent time as a foreign exchange student in Beijing in the mid-1990s, where he converted to Islam, Kent Ford said.
"It's all a mistake, it's got to be," he said.