PORTLAND, Ore. — Terrorism suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud pleaded innocent Monday to a federal charge regarding an attempt to explode a car bomb at a crowded Christmas-tree lighting last week in Portland, and his lawyers suggested that he was improperly entrapped by the FBI.
The 19-year-old Somali-American at the center of the latest case of purported homegrown terrorism said, “Yes, your honor,” in a soft tone when U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta asked if he understood his rights.
Mohamud, who was shackled at the ankles, otherwise was silent during his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Portland. He sat slumped for part of the 15-minute hearing and did not acknowledge his mother Mariam Barre, his sister Mona, several former classmates or other supporters who packed the courtroom.
Stephen R. Sady, chief deputy federal public defender, complained to the judge that federal officials hadgiven media interviews and a 36-page FBI affidavit “as a press release” to detail the purported plot. The arrest, he said, was “obviously timed for maximum impact and maximum publicity.”
Sady also charged that undercover FBI agents were “basically grooming” Mohamud for months to commit a terrorist act. He said the FBI failed to record their first meeting with Mohamud, although all subsequent meetings were bugged.
“In cases involving potential entrapment, it’s the first meeting that matters,” Sady said. “The first meeting was not recorded.”
According to the FBI affidavit, the undercover FBI agent who had the first face to-face meeting with Mohamud in a Portland hotel room last July 30 carried a concealed recording device, but the equipment failed “due to technical problems.”
Under the law, a judge may rule that improper entrapment has occurred if law enforcement agents induce a suspect to commit a crime that he otherwise would be unlikely to commit. A defendant may be found innocent if the government goes too far to orchestrate a crime.
In this case, Sady said, the FBI “may have exceeded these limits.”
Sady tendered the plea of innocent to a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. If convicted, Mohamud could face up to life in prison.
Acosta set a tentative date of Feb. 1 for a 15-day jury trial.
Ethan Knight, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the judge that Mohamud was a flight risk and danger to the community. Defense lawyers did not ask for bail.
After the hearing, Sady and Steven Wax, the federal public defender, released a statement saying the FBI’s sting “raises significant concerns about the government manufacturing crime - or entrapment.”
“The affidavit reveals that government agents suggested key actions for this teenager, spent thousands of dollars on him, specified components, drove Mr. Mohamud around and were instrumental in setting up” the purported bombing attempt, they said.
The defense lawyers urged the public to withhold judgment as the legal proceedings unfold.
“The issue this case raises regarding the proper balance between public safety and government-created crime are difficult and complex,” they said. “The presumption of innocence is an American value that should not be sacrificed to fear and sensationalism.”
Officials said Mohamud was born in 1991 in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, at the start of that African country’s bitter civil war.
He and his parents, Mariam and Osman Barre, came to America when he was 5, part of a diaspora that brought tens of thousands of Somali refugees to U.S. cities. About 6,500 Somalis are said to live in the Portland area.
Few details were available about Mohamud’s early years, including when he became a naturalized American. Neighbors said he has a younger sister, Mona, and a younger brother.
The case already has the earmarks of a public spectacle.
Among those who tried and failed to get into the crowded courtroom was Karrie Whitman, 43, who plays Mrs. Santa Claus each Christmas season at the city’s treelighting ceremony. She wore her costume - red robes with white furry trim, a floppy hat, and glitter on her face - into the courthouse.
Santa, she said, will put Mohamud “on his naughty list.”
Whitman said she attended the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Pioneer Courthouse Square last Friday night when, according to the FBI affidavit, Mohamud tried to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a white van.
The bomb was a fake built by the FBI, however, and Mohamud was arrested on the spot.
Some Portlanders wondered if the FBI had gone too far and unnecessarily scared residents.
“What is distressing about the incident is not so much that the FBI arrested or otherwise intervened,” said resident Joe Clement, 24, “but that the FBI used him to create a scenario that scared a lot of people.”
Portland was the first city in the nation to pull its officers from the FBI’s terrorism task force in 2005. The move came after the FBI wrongfully arrested a Portland lawyer as a suspect in the 2004 Madrid train bombings - a mistake that prompted an FBI apology.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams said he will review the city’s decision to remove itself from the Justice Department’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a cooperative among state, local and federal law enforcement.
“We have a new federal administration,” he said. “There have been changes to federal practices and federal laws.” Information for this article was contributed by Bob Drogin, April Choi and Richard A. Serrano of the Los Angeles Times and by Nigel Duara, Jonathan Cooper, Tim Fought and Pete Yost of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 11/30/2010