Free Republic

U.S. authorities are seeking to revoke the citizenship of an Oregon imam who they say tried to conceal past associations with radical Islamic groups. Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye raised money, recruited fighters and provided training for insurgent groups battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Justice says in a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland. Kariye was one of more than a dozen people who filed a lawsuit challenging the no-fly list, winning last year a court order saying the government must provide information about why people are on the list. The...

When controversial New York attorney Stanley Cohen came to court last week seeking to represent Portland Seven defendant Patrice Lumumba Ford, the focus was on Cohen's prior representation of the spiritual leader of a Portland mosque where Ford had worshiped. How can Cohen fairly represent Ford, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones asked, when Cohen's former client Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye is being investigated for allegedly helping to finance the same conspiracy with which Ford is charged? According to an FBI affidavit unsealed Friday, Kariye may have raised $12,000, through unidentified worshipers at Masjed As-Saber in Southwest Portland, for Ford...

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...

Prosecutors: Kariye may have financed 'Portland Seven' PORTLAND - Federal prosecutors say Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, the religious leader of the state's largest mosque, may have provided money and support to a group of Portland men accused of trying to fight U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. In court papers filed Tuesday, the prosecutors said Kariye is a target in the ongoing investigation. "The government possesses direct evidence of Kariye's involvement in the conspiracy," prosecutors said. Kariye has not been charged in the case. Prosecutors disclosed their investigation of Kariye as they sought a hearing on whether Kariye's lawyer had a conflict...

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...

Portland Muslim cleric released on bond PORTLAND - A man arrested last month by an FBI terrorism task force was ordered released Friday by a federal judge after being held for more than a month on charges of Social Security fraud. Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye was arrested on Sept. 8 at the Portland International Airport as he prepared to leave the country with his brother and children. He was on his way to the United Arab Emirates. U.S. Customs officials initially said tests had found explosives residue in two of Kariye's bags; further tests conducted by the FBI ruled that...

PORTLAND - ABC News reports the FBI is investigating possible al Qaeda terror cells in several major U.S. cities, including Portland. Agents are reportedly focusing on New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Houston, Detroit, Miami, Buffalo, Seattle and Portland. The FBI is particularly interested in several dozen U.S. citizens believed to have trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan during the late 90s. The news has piqued interest in Oregon as questions arise about certain members of a mosque in southwest Portland. First there was the arrest last week of Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, a leader of the mosque the Islamic Center of...

The Islamic Center of Portland -- the southwest Portland mosque that has come under recent FBI scrutiny -- is considered one of the most radical mosques in the U.S...(snip) The FBI is taking a close look at those who frequent the Islamic Center.For complete story click here. Related story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Reviewby Betsy Hiel and Chuck Plunkett:A writer for a former Pittsburgh Islamist magazine is connected to a Portland, Ore., mosque that is under FBI scrutiny with the arrest of its imam, or religious leader.Tawfiq Tabib, 49, who wrote for an Islamist magazine published in Pittsburgh from 1991 to...

<p>A writer for a former Pittsburgh Islamist magazine is connected to a Portland, Ore., mosque that is under FBI scrutiny with the arrest of its imam, or religious leader.</p> <p>Tawfiq Tabib, 49, who wrote for an Islamist magazine published in Pittsburgh from 1991 to 2000, lives in the same apartment complex as Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, who was arrested Sunday at Portland International Airport with one-way tickets to the United Arab Emirates.</p>

PORTLAND - Tests indicated explosives residue on the luggage of a local Islamic religious leader arrested at the Portland International Airport on charges of document fraud, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the man's arraignment. Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, 41, was arrested at the airport without incident around noon Sunday and booked at the Multnomah County Jail. Kariye on Monday pleaded innocent to two felony charges of using false information - including a changed name - while applying for and receiving three different Social Security cards between 1983 and 1995. The federal indictment also alleges that Kariye used an altered...