Nov. 19, 2008 - The Oregonian Editorial Board has called for Portland city officials to rethink their 2005 decision to withdraw from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). That withdrawal was a bold decision, and a strong stand for civil liberties, that set Portland apart from other major U.S. cities. The ACLU of Oregon continues to support the 2005 withdrawal and calls on civil libertarians to reiterate their support for the 2005 decision.

In a Nov. 15, 2008, editorial, The Oregonian -- relying mostly on four-year-old commentary from City Commissioner Dan Saltzman -- said it’s time to rethink that decision. Citing President-elect Obama’s anticipated recommitment to civil liberties, as well as the installation of Portland’s new Mayor Sam Adams, The Oregonian said “it seems like the perfect moment to revisit the issue.”

The Oregonian has it completely backward. Now is the time to recommit to repairing the damage done to civil liberties during the eight years of secret surveillance and the scandals of the Bush Administration. While we certainly hope the Obama Administration will reverse many of those destructive policies, it would be ill-advised for Portland to ignore its obligations to follow Oregon law based on such speculation.

The Joint Terrorism Task Force’s approach to deputizing state and local police officers as FBI agents was wrong in 2005, and it remains wrong today. The  JTTF’s practices keep Portland’s Police Commissioner and City Attorney out of the communications loop, preventing them from ensuring that city officers comply with Oregon laws that provide greater protection for innocent people swept up in terrorism investigations. One need look no further than the treatment of Brandon Mayfield to understand how wrong the FBI’s approach has been.

In fact, Portland’s decision to pull out of the JTTF was based largely on this fact -- that the JTTF operates in total secrecy, playing by the rules of John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey, which allow virtually unfettered political and religious spying on Oregonians.

This allows an end-run around the civil liberties protections of Oregon law, specifically ORS 181.575, which states in part that “No law enforcement agency … may collect or maintain information about the political, religious or social views, associations or activities of any individual, group, association, [or] organization … unless such information directly relates to an investigation of criminal activities, and there are reasonable grounds to suspect the subject of the information is or may be involved in criminal conduct.”

While Oregon law doesn’t prevent innocent people from being investigated, it does guarantee that the information collected about them will be purged once it becomes clear they are innocent.  On the other hand, federal FBI files are kept indefinitely.  That issue is at the heart of the pending lawsuit filed by Brandon Mayfield.  The Justice Department maintains it has the legal right to maintain files created based on the secret surveillance they did of Mayfield and his family prior to his wrongful arrest in 2004.

As Commissioner Randy Leonard wrote in a response to The Oregonian editorial, “I will not vote to rejoin the JTTF unless the police chief and mayor have complete access to what the officers assigned to the JTTF are doing. I will not support our blind participation in the task force.”

Portland’s 2005 decision to withdraw from the JTTF was a principled and courageous decision -- and it remains so. Other Oregon cities should follow Portland’s lead. 

Joining the ACLU in supporting Portland’s action was a broad coalition of organizations, including the League of Women Voters, the Portland Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, Portland CopWatch and numerous union, political and social service organizations.