Author: David Reinhard
Publication: OregonLive.com
Date: November 28, 2003
URL: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_reinhard/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1069937911158010.xml
I suppose it would have been preferable
if Patrice Lumumba Ford and Jeffrey Leon Battle had made nice with federal
prosecutors and their native land. It might have been helpful if Ford and
Battle had joined other "Portland Seven" defendants and cooperated with
anti-terror investigators. It might have been more satisfying if Ford and
Battle apologized for betraying their own country. But, then, Portland
and the nation wouldn't have gained a true glimpse of the cold, hate-filled
Islamic fanaticism that dwells among us.
That was on grotesque display in
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones' courtroom Monday morning. Ford and
Battle's sentencing memorandum and the hearing made for what educators
call "a teachable moment."
The defendants complained that the
prosecution trafficked in "distortions and half-truths" but did not dispute
any of the central facts in the government's sentencing memo. In sum, Ford
and Battle were ready to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan or fight violent
jihad somewhere else in the world (Chechnya, Kashmir) prior to 9/ 11. That
explains why our "Portland Seven" had their own name for their little outfit:
"Katibat Al-Mawt." Loose translation: "The Squad of Death."
Ford and Battle came up with all
kinds of lame excuses for their exploits. We just wanted to protect innocent
Afghan Muslims from the United States! We wanted to help the weak against
the strong! President Bush made us do it! But the most self-serving drivel
came when they talked about the love they felt for their sons. This from
men who abandoned their families and left their kids without visible means
of support. Men who went off to kill the sons and fathers of other Americans.
Men who wanted to impress someone -- Osama bin Laden -- who had slaughtered
fathers and sons and more on one sun-splashed September day.
Spare us their tears for fatherless
sons or sonless fathers. Or even their own sons.
Of course, the sentencing memo suggests
that fathers and sons, mothers and daughters of non-Muslims -- "kaffirs"
or unbelievers -- don't count for much in Ford and Battle's twisted minds.
Battle considered Americans "pigs," and Ford said in one taped conversation
that Christians and Jews were "the same as apes and pigs." In another taped
conversation with another Squad of Death member, Ford refers to a TV show
he was watching on the Holocaust. "I wish you was watching this, brother,
it's about the poor little Jews, ohh, and the Holocaust" -- and he goes
on to call Jews "lampshades."
Nor did Ford and Battle fancy themselves
members of a debating society. Battle possessed a document ("How do I train
myself for Jihaad?)" downloaded on Jan. 29, 2001. It offered instruction
on military and physical training for jihad. Ford had another version of
the same document, downloaded in mid-June 2001. Other Squad of Death members
were practicing with firearms in the spring and summer of that year. All
of which makes a hash of their claim that they were compelled to act when
the United States attacked Afghanistan in October 2001. So does the fact
that, on Sept. 14, 2001, Ford bought a shotgun and joined the others for
target shooting at a private gravel pit in Washington.
In the same Aug. 15, 2002, conversation
in which Battle called Americans "pigs," he talked about considering, but
ultimately rejecting, the possibility of committing terrorist acts -- maybe
mass murder at a Jewish synagogue or school -- here at home. "We were willing
to get caught or die if we could do at least 100 or 1,000, big numbers,"
he said.
The next day Battle said he'd rather
stage a raid instead of a suicide mission. He wanted to stay alive so he
could take in the damage he inflicted.
On Sept. 10, 2002 -- as Americans
prepared to commemorate the one- year anniversary of 9/11 -- Battle was
overheard asking the government's cooperating witness if he knew how to
make a bomb.
The sentencing memo contains similar
chilling material. But something equally chilling -- and perhaps equally
instructive -- happened in Jones' courtroom Monday, and the two Squad of
Death members were not the culprits. Having listened to Ford and Battle
use Islam to justify their crimes, Jones had a bellyful. He told Ford,
"You are an insult to the Muslim religion."
Jones' comment should have prompted
cheers from true defenders of Islam. Instead, snarls and muttering filled
the courtroom's peanut gallery.
I've wondered how some Portlanders
could stand by and do nothing as they watched traitors operate in our midst.
Now, we may have a answer: There are apparently people in this city besides
Patrice Lumumba Ford and Jeffrey Battle who share their contorted view
of Islam. David Reinhard, associate editor, can be reached at 503-221-8152
or davidreinhard@news.oregonian.com.
