Portland, Oregon Invited To Rejoin America

What's wrong with Portland?

The Tigard City Council approved a resolution, Tuesday, urging the city of Portland to rejoin the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a group that partners the FBI with police and law enforcement agencies across the country.

For Tigard City Councilor Nick Wilson the choice is clear: Portland should rejoin. Now.

“What’s wrong with Portland?” Wilson said in an interview with The Times before Tuesday’s council meeting. “I mean it, what’s wrong with Portland?”

Wilson, who had family members at Pioneer Square the night of the bomb threat on Nov. 26, said that terrorist plots against Portland affect Tigard and other surrounding areas as well.

“Potential threats are regional in nature,” he said. “I don’t confine my activities to one city and neither do criminals.”

The Portland Police Bureau was pulled out of the multi-jurisdictional task force in 2005 amid concerns over anti-terrorism policies, but the issue resurfaced after the FBI arrested Mohamed Osman Mohamud for allegedly plotting to bomb the Nov. 26 Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Pioneer Courthouse Square.