- CORVALLIS, Oregon (Reuters)
- Police chiefs in three Oregon cities Thursday joined Portland's chief
in balking at a request by federal officials to question foreigners who
may have information regarding terrorist attacks.
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- The police department in Eugene, the state's second
largest
city, joined Corvallis, a college town in the central portion of the state,
and Hillsboro, a suburb of Portland, in refusing to conduct interviews
sought by the federal government.
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- Corvallis Police Chief Pam Roskowski said she felt her
officers were "best used in doing interviews where we have reason
to believe there may be some criminal information to
investigate."
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- Eugene Police Chief Jim Hill said he was concerned with
"burning bridges we have built with the community."
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- Hillsboro Chief Ron Louie said that because "this
is an intelligence gathering operation and those to be interviewed are
not suspected of criminal activity it would not be appropriate for the
Hillsboro police department."
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- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Nov. 9 requested
information on 5,000 foreign visitors nationwide in hopes of learning more
about the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
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- The Oregonian newspaper in Portland said some of the
questions sought "all telephone numbers used by an individual and
his family or close associates" and "information that would
assist
us in locating the individual in the future."
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- Ashcroft's directive asked for help from local police
in the questioning, but the Portland Police Bureau became the first
department
in the country to refuse, saying the questions violated state law.
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- The Oregon state attorney general disagreed with the
Portland opinion, but Chief Mark Kroeker still refused to get involved,
saying he was following his city attorney's advice.
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- Corvallis, a community of about 50,000 people and home
of Oregon State University, has a small Islamic community, mostly students.
Roskowski said if any of the interviews turned up a terrorism connection
her 60-member force would get involved.
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- NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT'
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- The Oregonian, the state's largest newspaper, said this
was not a time for Portland "to sit on its hands", and the
Portland
police union blasted Kroeker's decision as a "national
embarrassment."
-
- The Ashcroft directive seeks information on 200 people
in Oregon, including 23 in Portland and 30 in Corvallis.
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- State police and federal officers cooperating with local
officers will conduct the interviews, which are scheduled to be completed
by Dec. 21.
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- In Eugene, where 40 of the potential subjects live, Hill
decided not to cooperate following a meeting with community leaders.
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- "If you take the patriotism overtones out of the
situation it seems like it's unlikely you're going to get real results
from this type of questioning," Hill said.
-
- "In contemporary policing you try to get the
community
on board with you. When you do that you get much better cooperation. We've
got people in the Islamic and Muslim communities who are ready to help
us and we don't want to jeopardize that trust."
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- Eight Oregon state troopers have been assigned to assist
in the interviews, said Maj. Greg Willeford, director of the state police's
Office of Public Safety and Security.
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- Members of the Middle Eastern community in Oregon said
they have not heard of anyone being questioned yet.
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- The Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
said it planned to make lawyers available to people subjected to the
interviews.
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- "It's not the city of Portland that's out of line.
It's the federal Justice Department that is out of line," Oregon ACLU
director David Finanque said.
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