Latest terror suspects pulled from quiet, professional lives

PORTLAND, Ore. -- One terrorism suspect worked for two Portland mayors. Two others were nursing assistants at a retirement home.

But suspicious behavior -- alarming messages to co-workers, a child's pro-terrorism remarks -- emerged from their quiet lives months before they were arrested Friday on charges of conspiring to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Patrice Lumumba Ford, Jeffrey Leon Battle and October Martinique Lewis were arrested in early morning raids Friday in Portland. Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal was arrested in a Detroit suburb, and Muhammad's brother Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal and Habis Abdulla al Saoub were also indicted but remained at large Saturday.

According to the indictment, five of the suspects set out for Afghanistan in October 2001 with the intention of helping al-Qaida fight U.S. troops but never made it through the Chinese border. Lewis stayed in Portland and wired information and more than $2,000 to Battle, her ex-husband, as he tried to join the Taliban, the indictment states.

Washington weapons

Federal officials say four of the suspects -- including Battle and Ford -- also engaged in weapons training at a gravel pit in Washington state two weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Ford's family and co-workers knew the 31-year-old as a bright, quiet student who spent a year at Johns Hopkins University's prestigious program in China, earned a master's degree in Chinese studies and married a Chinese woman.

Named after the African resistance leader and first president of Congo, Ford worked as an international relations intern in 1986 for then-Portland mayor Bud Clark and again in 1998 and 1999 for Portland Mayor Vera Katz, but no one at city hall could recall distinct memories of the soft-spoken man.

"He was very quiet, very professional," Katz said in an interview.

However, at one point last year, Ford sent messages to several members of her staff that concerned them enough to notify the FBI a month before the Sept. 11 attacks, Katz said. She said the FBI asked city officials not to comment further on the messages.

Ford also taught physical education at an Islamic school in the Portland suburb of Tigard, operated a private shuttle service and worked to resettle recently arrived Muslim refugees into the Portland community.

His brother James Britt said his family is certain of his innocence.

"It's all a political game. It's all hype. It's all part of the hysteria," Britt said. "We are going to be with him. We are going to support him every step of the way."