4 in U.S. Held as Members of Terrorist Cell

Calling Friday a “defining day” in the fight against terrorism, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft announced the arrests of four people on charges of conspiring to wage war against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, as so-called American Talib John Walker Lindh was sentenced and shoe-bomber Richard Reid pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner.

FBI agents arrested two men and one woman in a series of predawn raids in Portland, Ore., and another man near Detroit. They were identified as members of a terrorist cell who were bent on traveling to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks to fight alongside the Taliban army and Al Qaeda terrorists.

In all, six people--five men and one woman, all but one U.S. citizens--were indicted by a federal grand jury in Portland on Thursday. The charges, which were unsealed Friday, include conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to provide material resources and support to a terrorist organization, Al Qaeda. Each defendant could face life in prison if convicted.

Two of those indicted remained fugitives late Friday and were believed to be overseas. The others made court appearances in Portland and Detroit and were ordered held in custody without bail. One of them, Jeffrey Leon Battle, 32, is a former U.S. Army reservist who joined the military to receive “training in U.S. tactics and weapons” that he hoped to later use while fighting against U.S. troops, according to the indictment.

“Today is a defining day in America’s war against terrorism,” Ashcroft said at a news conference at Department of Justice headquarters.

“We’ve neutralized a suspected terrorist cell within our borders. We’ve convicted an attempted suicide bomber. And an American pledged and trained and captured in violent jihad is sentenced.”

As Ashcroft spoke in Washington, Lindh, 21, was appearing in a packed federal courtroom in nearby Alexandria, Va., to be sentenced as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. government.

In sometimes tearful remarks, Lindh renounced Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network before the hushed courtroom and the judge. He said he never would have enlisted to fight with the Taliban had he known it was sheltering Al Qaeda. After accepting full responsibility for serving as a Taliban soldier, Lindh was sentenced to serve 20 years in federal prison.

Earlier in the day, Reid, 29, appeared at a hearing in Boston, in which the British vagabond agreed to plead guilty to terrorism-related charges. Reid was arrested Dec. 22 while trying to detonate explosives packed into his sneakers while aboard a crowded commercial airliner heading from Paris to Miami.

“I am an enemy of your country,” Reid said, after pronouncing his allegiance to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and at times laughing at the judge and court observers. He could face life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced.

Ashcroft and other authorities described those taken into custody in Portland and near Detroit as committed terrorists who tried for months late last year to gain entry into Afghanistan and fight with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Ashcroft said their indictments bring to 17 the number of people charged in the United States since Aug. 28 with participating in terrorist plots. In recent weeks, authorities have arrested men in upstate New York, Seattle and Detroit on terrorism-related charges.

“Today is a day of justice for the citizens, the soldiers and law enforcement officers who defend our nation and our values, and defend them each and every day,” said Ashcroft, who appeared with several of his top deputies and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. “It is a day both of victory and a day of resolve, of well-deserved thanks for a job well done, coupled with a rededication to the job that lies ahead.”

Throughout the day Friday, U.S. authorities and law enforcement officials overseas searched for Ahmed Bilal, 24, and Habis Abdulla Al Saoub, 36, also known as Abu Tarek, who were indicted but not arrested. Al Saoub is the only non-U.S. citizen among those indicted; authorities described him as being Jordanian, but also a permanent resident alien in the United States.

Authorities would not say whether they knew the whereabouts of Ahmed Bilal and Al Saoub.

The others indicted were identified as Patrice Lumumba Ford, 31, also known as Lumumba; Bilal’s brother Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, 22 and October Martinique Lewis, 25, also known as Khadijah, who is Battle’s ex-wife. Battle is also known as Ahmad Ali and Abu Isa, according to the indictment. Ford has worked as an intern for two Portland mayors, according to city officials there.

Muhammad Bilal was held without bail after a court appearance in Detroit Friday, while Ford pleaded not guilty to all charges during an arraignment in federal court in Portland. Arraignments for two others were postponed until Monday.

Authorities in Washington, Portland and Detroit said their investigation was continuing into other suspected members of the Portland group, particularly at least one unidentified person who wired some of the defendants money while they were trying to enter Afghanistan. Authorities also said they were continuing to search for clues indicating whether the suspects were planning attacks on U.S. soil, and whether others had also traveled overseas in an effort to fight with the Taliban. All of those indicted had lived in Portland, including Muhammad Bilal, who had been living recently with a relative in Dearborn, Mich., where he was arrested Friday.

“The enemy recruits in this country, it trains in this country, it plans in this country and acts in this country,” said Charles Mathews, the FBI special agent in charge of the Portland field office.

To date, authorities have found no evidence that the six defendants were plotting specific attacks on U.S. soil. But there is ample evidence, they said, that the five males indicted had bought weapons just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, trained and then traveled through China, Indonesia and Bangladesh in an effort to join the Taliban in Afghanistan and engage U.S. troops in battle.

The weapons included a high-powered rifle with scope, a Chinese SKS assault rifle and several semiautomatic pistols, authorities said.

But their efforts to link up with the Taliban and Al Qaeda appear to have been unsuccessful, and the three male defendants arrested Friday had returned home to Portland late last year and in early 2002, according to the indictment.

Another man identified as an unindicted co-conspirator, Khaled Ali Steitiye, was recently convicted of fraud and firearms charges and is in prison.

Authorities would not comment on why the grand jury named Steitiye as a co-conspirator but did not indict him.

The indictment also said nothing about how authorities knew the men wanted to fight for or with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and Ashcroft and other authorities refused comment, except to refer to the indictment.

According to the indictment, when Al Saoub left Portland for China, he left behind a document titled “A Martyr’s Will.”

It also said that once Battle was overseas in November 2001, he sent ex-wife Lewis one of many e-mails, saying “three of the brothers could have made it by now,” referring to their efforts to enter Afghanistan and join the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Soon after, Lewis replied to Battle that “the U.S. captured three [A]mericans out there trying to fight on you know who side” and that there were 2,000 U.S. Marines now “out there.”

According to the indictment, the five male defendants began acquiring firearms in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

They also engaged in weapons training and physical training “in preparation to fight a jihad,” it said.

In October 2001, as United States troops entered into battle against the Taliban regime, Battle, Ford, both Bilals and Al Saoub began to travel to Afghanistan, one by one, in the hopes of joining forces with Taliban and Al Qaeda troops battling United States and allied military forces, the indictment said.

They all purchased airline tickets to Hong Kong with the intent of traveling to Afghanistan via China and Pakistan. On Nov. 2, 2001, Battle told his ex-wife, Lewis, that the group had encountered difficulties crossing the border of China into Afghanistan.

The indictment charges that on eight occasions, Lewis wired money to Battle overseas with the knowledge that the money would be used to support his attempt to reach Afghanistan to fight with Taliban and Al Qaeda forces.

The indictment also said that while he was in Bangladesh trying to gain entry into Afghanistan, Battle had himself discharged administratively from the U.S. Army Reserve, “in which he had enlisted in order to receive military training intended for use against the United States.”

The investigation into the Portland group began last September when a resident of Skamania County, Wash., just across the river from Portland, called authorities after hearing gunfire on private property. Last December, Skamania County authorities contacted the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Portland after Mercer recognized Steitiye from televised news reports of his arrest on weapon charges. The task force launched a full-scale investigation that led to Friday’s arrests.

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Times staff researcher Lynn Marshall contributed to this report from Seattle.