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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...

Homegrown terrorist Jeffrey Leon Battle considered America the “land of the kaffirs,” or unbelievers, and the American people “pigs.” He once lamented to an acquaintance—who happened to be a government informant—that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks did not sufficiently damage the U.S. economy. “This is the land of the enemy,” he said of his own country in a May 8, 2002, conversation secretly recorded by the government. He explained to a friend how his “burning desire” to become an Islamic martyr had inspired his aborted quest to join forces with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, where he could kill American...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1132031/posts Fingerprint links Oregon with SpainOregonian Live ^ | May 08, 2004 | Marc Larabee, Steven Beaven, Kathleen Blythe, Bryan Denson and Lori Tobias This story could have "legs" that take us all over the US and the world re: Islamoterrorism. Someone better start seriously thinking about these terrorists in Kosovo....talk about a world sactioned breeding ground--Bosnian Arrested in Madrid Bombings Probe The FBI analysts also found indications that whoever left the fingerprint on the bag involved in the Madrid bombings had some connection to the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, where international Islamic extremists have been active. Some of the...

A former Intel engineer who pleaded guilty to aiding terrorist organizations was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison. Maher "Mike" Mofeid Hawash, a naturalized U.S. citizen, entered a guilty plea last August, admitting to traveling to China with five suspected terrorists and attempting to enter Afghanistan in order to fight against American military forces in 2001. In addition to sentencing Hawash, U.S. District Judge Robert Jones in Portland, Ore., sentenced Ahmed Bilal to 10 years and Muhammad Bilal to eight years. Both were defendants in related cases that prosecutors said together represented a "Portland cell." "Today's sentences demonstrate the...

Ex-Intel veep, 'Mike' Hawash gets seven years in gaol Price of conspiring to wage war on the United States By Paul Hales: Tuesday 10 February 2004, 17:27 EX-INTEL EMPLOYEE Mike Hawash was on Monday sentenced to seven years in gaol for conspiring to wage war on the United States, Palestinian-born Maher 'Mike' Hawash, 39 was accused of trying to enter Afghanistan to join Afghan Taliban forces attempting to repel the US-led invasion of that country. His arrest prompted fellow employees to set up Free Mike Hawash Web site, after he was said to have spent four weeks in solitary confinment....

'Proud to be a U.S. citizen' A repentant Maher Hawash blames only himself -- not Islam or the U.S. government -- for his legal troubles 02/10/04 T he U.S. government treated Maher "Mike" Hawash fairly and with dignity. Those aren't our words. Nor are they the prosecutors' words. They're the words of Hawash himself, uttered Monday in U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones' courtroom. They're important words, given the heated claims that his friends and backers made about Hawash's unfair arrest and detention last year, but maybe not the most important words spoken Monday. Those came from Jones and Hawash...

The final members of a group of Muslim men with Portland ties who tried, but failed, to enter Afghanistan as Taliban foot soldiers were each sentenced to prison time Monday morning.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The final three members of a group of Muslim men from the Portland area who tried to enter Afghanistan to join the Taliban were each sentenced to prison time Monday.They were among six men and one woman accused of conspiring to wage war on the United States.Palestinian-born Maher Hawash, 39, was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison. Ahmed Bilal, 25, was sentenced to 10 years and his brother, Muhammad, 23, was sent to prison for eight years.All were given reduced terms because they cooperated with authorities.``I do not blame anybody else except myself,'' Hawash said...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 (202) 514-2008WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514 - 1888 TWO DEFENDANTS IN 'PORTLAND CELL' CASE PLEAD GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO CONTRIBUTE SERVICES TO THE TALIBAN, FEDERAL WEAPONS CHARGES WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General John Ashcroft, Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael W. Mosman of the District of Oregon announced today that Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal and Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, two defendants in the so-called "Portland cell" case, have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to provide services to the Taliban, and conspiracy to possess and discharge firearms in...

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....

Islamic militants are streaming into Iraq to attack Americans, for reasons that stir in the hearts of Muslims worldwide -- including the USA. A “wide range of militants,” says the New York Times, is streaming into Iraq, eager for a showdown with American troops. Mullah Mustapha Kreikar, leader of the Muslim terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, declaimed from his safe haven in Norway on the religious character of the struggle: “The resistance is not only a reaction to the American invasion, it is part of the continuous Islamic struggle since the collapse of the caliphate. All Islamic struggles since then are...

The campaign to "free Mike Hawash" sputtered to a halt last week. Hawash is a former Intel engineer who has been widely portrayed as the victim of a Bush administration anti-Muslim witch hunt ever since the FBI picked him up in a parking lot outside his Oregon workplace last March. Hawash was held as a maaterial witness to an al Qaeda conspiracy for five weeks before being charged as a member of that conspiracy. Shortly after he was detained, his former Intel boss Steve McGeady launched a publicity offensive on behalf of his friend, whom McGeady described as a prisoner...

Howls of rage went up after the Joint Terrorism Task Force, guns drawn, arrested Maher Hawash in the parking lot of an Intel Corporation facility in March 2003 and placed him in solitary confinement. The protests intensified as prosecutors detained him without charges for over a month in an Oregon jail while they pored over the evidence. Given Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash's biography, this all came as a particular shock, for he personified the American success story. A Palestinian born in Nablus in 1964 and reared in Kuwait, he arrived in the United States in 1984, earning degrees in electrical...

Howls of rage went up after the Joint Terrorism Task Force, guns drawn, arrested Maher Hawash in the parking lot of an Intel Corporation facility in March, 2003, and placed him in solitary confinement. The protests intensified as prosecutors detained him without charges for more than a month in an Oregon jail while they pored over the evidence. Given Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash's biography, this all came as a particular shock, for he personified the American success story. A Palestinian born in Nablus in 1964 and reared in Kuwait, he arrived in the United States in 1984, earning degrees in...

<p>August 12, 2003 -- HOWLS of rage went up after the Joint Terrorism Task Force, guns drawn, arrested Maher Hawash in the parking lot of an Intel Corp. facility in March and placed him in solitary confinement. The protests intensified as prosecutors detained him without charges for more than a month in an Oregon jail while they pored over the evidence.</p>

ORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 6 — A software engineer pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of aiding the Taliban and agreed to testify against others in exchange for the dropping of other charges. The engineer, Maher Hawash, will serve at least seven years in prison under the deal, which was approved by Attorney General John Ashcroft. Mr. Hawash pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiring to levy war against the United States and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism. He was part of a group that traveled to China...

"Maher Hawash, an Intel software engineer whose detention in Oregon prompted high-profile protests about civil rights abuse, pleaded guilty [yesterday] to a federal charge of conspiring to help the Taliban in Afghanistan," the Washington Post reports. "In return for his promise to testify against six other Portland-based suspects accused of plotting in 2001 to wage war against the United States, federal prosecutors dropped more serious terrorism charges against Hawash." This case is noteworthy for two reasons. First, Hawash had a lot of advocates who loudly declared his innocence. The Free Mike Hawash! Web site is still up, though it hasn't...

Maher 'Mike' Hawash holds his five-month-old daughter Sarra Hawash in their family home in Hillsboro, Ore., in this May 1998 family handout photo. Hawash, a software engineer pleaded guilty Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2003, to a charge of aiding the Taliban, agreeing to testify against other suspects in exchange for the dropping of other terrorism charges. (AP Photo/Hawash Family) Ore. Engineer Pleads to Terrorism Charge By ANDREW KRAMER, Associated Press Writer PORTLAND, Ore. - A software engineer who unsuccessfully tried to enter Afghanistan to fight against U.S. troops pleaded guilty Wednesday to aiding the Taliban and agreed to testify against other...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A software engineer pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of aiding the Taliban (search), agreeing to testify against other suspects in exchange for the dropping of other terrorism charges. Maher "Mike" Hawash (search), one of the so-called "Portland Seven," will serve at least seven years in federal prison under the deal, which was approved by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (search). Hawash pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiring to levy war against the United States and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism. "You and the...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A software engineer pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of aiding the Taliban, agreeing to testify against other suspects in exchange for the dropping of other terrorism charges. Maher "Mike" Hawash, one of the so-called "Portland Seven," will serve at least seven years in federal prison under the deal, which was approved by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Hawash pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiring to levy war against the United States and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism. "You and the others in...