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FBI affidavit alleges imam bankrolled plot 08/23/03 LES ZAITZ One of six men charged with trying to join the Taliban and kill U.S. soldiers said Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, leader of Portland's largest mosque, funded the overseas trip with $12,000 that came from mosque members, according to a newly released FBI affidavit. Defendant Jeffrey Battle also was secretly recorded telling how Kariye, religious leader of the Islamic Center of Portland, participated in a prayer session at the mosque with the group just before the men left and later directed them to return if they couldn't get into Afghanistan, the affidavit said....

Federal prosecutors disclosed Tuesday that prominent Islamic leader Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye is a target of a terrorism investigation because of "direct evidence" he helped a group of Portland men accused of trying to fight U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan Prosecutors say Kariye may have provided money and support "in other ways" to a group of six men who they say traveled to China in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Federal prosecutors said in court papers filed Tuesday afternoon that Kariye, 41, is a "target of the ongoing investigation," which means investigators are building a criminal case against him. "The...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The leader of Portland's biggest mosque sits on the board of an Islamic charity that's being investigated for terrorist links, federal tax records show. The Oregonian reported Tuesday that Alaa M. Abunijem has served on a three-person board in charge of the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America since at least 1999, according to federal documents reviewed by the Portland newspaper. An FBI agent testified in an Idaho federal court last week that the bureau's evidence "clearly points" to the Islamic Assembly's role in promoting terrorism. Abunijem and other directors of the Islamic Assembly have not...