Free Republic

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a man’s lawsuit challenging his placement on the federal government’s “No Fly List” can proceed, finding that the government did not prove the case was moot after removing him from the list. Yonas Fikre, a U.S. citizen, claimed the FBI unlawfully placed him on the list and pressured him to become an informant. While the government argued Fikre’s removal meant the case was moot, the Court rejected this view, allowing the merits of the allegations to be examined in lower courts

PORTLAND — A former Washington state Transportation Department engineer yesterday has found himself, his imam and his mosque swept into an unfolding investigation by Portland's joint terrorism force led by the FBI. Farid Adlouni, a civil engineer and U.S. citizen who once worked out of the Vancouver office, was profiled in The Oregonian newspaper yesterday as a man with business ties to a top Osama bin Laden aide and who has attracted FBI scrutiny. Adlouni, 38, yesterday said he had "done nothing wrong." The imam, Mohammad Abdirahman Kariye, also a U.S. citizen, was recently charged with two felony counts of...

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...

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...

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...

Four days ago Warblogging reported on the story of Maher (Mike) Hawash. Mr. Hawash's problems have now been the subject of an article in the New York Times. Mr. Hawash is a programmer, working at Intel, who was detained by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force as a material witness. He has so far spent just about two weeks in jail without being charged with a crime and without being questioned or told why he is detained. He is being kept in solitary confinement. Mr. Hawash was detained by FBI agents wearing helments, body armor and carrying assault rifles...

Lawyers, law officers debate whether a terror cell took root among us -- A ‘sexy script,’ a suspect castBY JIM REDDEN Is the Portland area a breeding ground for radical Muslim terrorism? Or are law enforcement officials seeing a threat where none exists? The Portland FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has spearheaded the arrest of seven Portland Muslims since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City and Washington, D.C. An eighth Muslim suspect is still at large. The task force targets include the leader of a conservative local mosque, a mosque member trained in firearms and six...