PORTLANDERS CONDEMN FBI BOMB PLOT ENTRAPMENT

NIGEL DUARA
From Associated Press
November 29, 2010 6:01 PM EST

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Some residents of this famously
liberal city are unnerved, not only by a plot to bomb an annual
Christmas tree-lighting ceremony last week but also by the police
tactics in the case.

They questioned whether federal agents crossed the line by training
19-year-old Somali-American Mohamed O. Mohamud to blow up a bomb, giving
him $3,000 cash to rent an apartment and providing him with a fake
bomb.

The FBI affidavit "was a picture painted to make the suspect sound
like a dangerous terrorist," said Portland photographer Rich Burroughs.
"I don't think it's clear at all that this person would have ever had
access to even a fake bomb if not for the FBI."

Attorney General Eric Holder defended the agents on Monday, rejecting entrapment accusations.

Once the undercover operation began, Mohamud, who officials said had
no formal ties to foreign terror groups, "chose at every step to
continue" with the bombing plot, Holder said.

To be sure, many Portlanders were unsettled that a terror plot could
unfold in their backyard — in Pioneer Courthouse Square, as thousands
cheered the tree lighting — and not in much higher-profile cities such
as New York or Los Angeles.

At a time when people are focused on body scans and intrusive
pat-downs to prevent terrorist attacks, some Portlanders wondered if the
FBI had gone too far and unnecessarily scared residents.

"What is distressing about the incident is not so much that the FBI
arrested or otherwise intervened," said resident Joe Clement, 24, "but
that the FBI used him to create a scenario that scared a lot of people."

It is not unusual in Portland for actions by federal agents to be met with skepticism and criticism.

Portland was the first city in the nation to pull its officers from
the FBI's terrorism task force in 2005. The move came after the FBI
wrongfully arrested a Portland attorney as a suspect in the 2004 Madrid
train bombings — a mistake that prompted an FBI apology.

"I don't think there will be much serious debate as to whether or not
(Mohamud) should have been a person worth looking into," said resident
Christopher Frankonis, 41. "Portland being Portland, and Portland being
liberal, it will understand and accept" it.

But Portland being what it is, residents will "still want answers to questions about how it all went down," he said.

The FBI set up a sting operation to investigate Mohamud after receiving a tip.

Two undercover federal agents led Mohamud to believe he could
detonate a bomb with a cell phone, helped him choose an apartment in
Portland and instructed him to buy the equipment necessary to trigger
the fake device.

Authorities say Mohamud parked a van full of explosives near the
square on Friday night and was arrested shortly after he dialed a cell
phone that he thought would blow up the bomb. He was charged with
attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction.

Kim Bissett, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, said she moved to Portland because it is a liberal city.
She said most of the anger was from the suburbs, not from city
residents.

"The angriest people are those from the suburbs, not necessarily Portland, which is very accepting," Bissett said.

A fire on Sunday destroyed part of the Salman Al-Farisi Islamic
Center in Corvallis, a college town about 75 miles southwest of Portland
where Mohamud occasionally worshipped while attending Oregon State. No
one was injured.

Police believe the fire was intentionally set and increased patrols around mosques and other Islamic sites in Portland.

At a news conference in Washington, Holder also said the FBI was
investigating the fire. If the blaze is related to the arrest or to an
attack on Islam, it "is something that I personally decry," Holder said.

"It is not something that is consistent with who we are as Americans," he said.

While leaders in the Somali community in the U.S. condemned the plot,
some, including a friend of Mohamud, were concerned about federal
agents possibly luring him into breaking the law.

Mujahid El-Naser, 20, said he didn't believe Mohamud would have
gotten involved in the plot without FBI encouragement. El-Naser, who has
played basketball with Mohamud, said he never heard him express
extremist views.

"If you talk with someone enough, they'll be convinced they need to
do something," said El-Naser, who gathered outside the federal court
building with a couple of dozen people before a court hearing where
Mohamud pleaded not guilty.

A defense of entrapment must prove that the government planted the
idea of a criminal act in an innocent person's mind and brought about
the crime so the government could prosecute it.

Key to the defense is showing the defendant wasn't predisposed to act criminally before the government got involved.

In this case, the FBI affidavit said it was Mohamud who picked the
target of the bomb plot, that he was warned several times about the
seriousness of his plan, that women and children could die, and that he
could back out.

Mohamud "was told that children — children — were potentially going to be harmed," Holder added.

Authorities said they allowed the plot to continue so they could
gather enough evidence to charge him with attempted use of a weapon of
mass destruction.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams said he will review the city's decision to
remove itself from the Justice Department's Joint Terrorism Task Force, a
cooperative among state, local and federal law enforcement.

"We have a new federal administration," he said. "There have been changes to federal practicies and federal laws."

Mohamud was investigated for rape in 2009 but never charged. The
Benton County District Attorney's Office didn't find a reason to charge
Mohamud with a crime after a woman whose name was redacted in the
documents filed a sexual assault complaint.

Mohamud had sex with the woman in an Oregon State dorm room on Oct.
31, 2009. He said in the documents that he and the woman were "a little
tipsy" when they left a fraternity party and returned to his dorm room.

Tests on the woman failed to show any controlled substances or common pharmaceuticals in her body.

Mohamud's attorney, Steven Wax, could not immediately be reached for comment.

___

Associated Press writer Jonathan Cooper, Tim Fought and Pete Yost in Washington , D.C., contributed to this report.

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PORTLANDERS CONDEMN FBI BOMB PLOT ENTRAPMENT