IP: Portland police refuse to cooperate with U.S. questioning

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> X-Sender: kuipers () mailbox cs utexas edu
> Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 11:52:49 -0600
> To: dave () farber net
> From: Benjamin Kuipers <kuipers () cs utexas edu>
> Subject: CNN:  Portland police refuse to cooperate with U.S. questioning
>
> Portland police refuse to cooperate with U.S. questioning
> State law requires people be suspects before being questioned
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/11/21/inv.portland.police.questioning.ap/index.html
>
>                        November 21, 2001 Posted: 12:11 PM EST (1711 GMT)
>
>
>
>                        PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- Portland police have 
> refused a U.S. Justice
>                        Department request for help in interviewing Middle 
> Eastern immigrants as
>                        part of its sweeping terrorism investigation, 
> saying it would violate state law.
>
>                        Attorney General John Ashcroft announced earlier
>                        this month that the Justice Department had
>                        distributed a list of 5,000 men it wanted to
>                        interview about the September 11 terrorist attacks,
>                        an effort that has been widely criticized by civil
>                        rights groups.
>
>                        The U.S. Attorney's Office in Portland asked city
>                        police for cooperation last week, acting police chief
>                        Andrew Kirkland said Tuesday. The request was
>                        denied because Oregon law says no one can be
>                        questioned by police unless they are suspected of
>                        being involved in a crime, he said.
>
>                        "The law says, generally, we can interview people
>                        that we may suspect have committed a crime,"
>                        Kirkland said. "But the law does not allow us to go
>                        out and arbitrarily interview people whose only
>                        offense is immigration or citizenship, and it doesn't
>                        give them authority to arbitrarily gather
>                        information on them."
>
>                        Portland is believed to be the first city to refuse to
>                        cooperate with the Justice Department in its
>                        anti-terrorism effort.


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