Judge blasts Ford, Battle as ‘first-class traitors’

• Songs, tears mark dramatic sentencing of two Portland 7 members • Defendants say laws of Islam supersede the laws of the U.S.

By Janine Robben And Ben Jacklet

The Portland Tribune, Nov 25, 2003, Updated Oct 30, 2009

A dramatic sentencing hearing Ñ in which one defendant broke down into tears and the other burst into song Ñ ended Monday morning with U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones denouncing Patrice Lumumba Ford and Jeffrey Leon Battle as “first-class traitors to this country.”

Ford and Battle, each sentenced to 18 years in prison, were the first defendants among the so-called “Portland Seven” to be sentenced for their now-admitted conspiracy to support Afghanistan’s fundamentalist government, the Taliban. They are the only members of the Portland Seven who refused to cooperate with the government in exchange for lighter sentences.

With long, passionate speeches that praised Allah and slammed the U.S. government, they took full advantage of their first opportunity to explain the motives behind attempting to join the Afghan resistance against invading U.S. soldiers in the fall of 2001.

Both African-American converts to Islam, the men said they were compelled by their beliefs to “help the weak to stand up to the strong,” as Ford said.

Battle, 33, said he was prepared to make the “ultimate sacrifice” by dying in battle to defend the people of Afghanistan from U.S. forces. “Islam is about coming to the aid of your brothers,” he explained.

The defendants read from prepared statements and declared that they considered the laws of Islam to be above the laws of the United States.

Ford read so quickly that the court reporter had to ask him to slow down. He slowed his pace, then read a letter to his 2 1/2-year-old son. As he described the time he will lose as a father, he began to weep.

Ford, 32, said he hoped his son would one day understand “the value of the principles for which I went to prison.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Gorder Jr. responded, “Mr. Ford is the saddest case in this group because he had a future.”

Noting that Ford held an advanced degree in Far East studies and was fluent in Mandarin, Gorder suggested that Ford “should be working for the State Department” rather than heading off to prison.

“A sentence of 18 years is appropriate for what he did,” Gorder said.

Jones took issue with Ford using religion as a motive for treason. “You are an insult to the Muslim religion,” he declared, prompting the defendant’s half-brother, James Britt, to storm out of the courtroom for the second time in less than 10 minutes.

“You come to a place like this, you expect justice,” Britt told the Tribune in the hallway outside of the proceedings. “What we got was bull----.”

Britt called Jones’ comments “something you’d expect from an arrogant white man. É I’d be willing to bet that Judge Jones has no friends who are Islamic and hasn’t read any books about Muslims, at least in the last six months.”

Inside the courtroom, Jones continued his barrage. He even attacked Ford’s letter to his young child, saying, “I wonder if you have poisoned your son.”

Jones chided Ford further: “You can’t blame your family for where you are. You can blame one person, and that is yourself.”

Upon hearing that, Ford’s mother, Sandra Ford, who has silently sat through previous proceedings without a comment and turned down numerous requests for interviews, interrupted the judge.

“His family loves him and honors him and respects him,” she said.

A bailiff walked over to Sandra Ford and whispered in her ear. She did not speak again.

Song contrasts with statements

Not only did Battle speak, he sang. His voice rang out through the courtroom as he crooned his way through at least five verses with the refrain “Free is the only way to be.”

Battle spoke with the vigor of an expressive man who has been forced to be silent for months, while his recorded words have brought havoc. He is the defendant who was caught on tape saying that he would consider bombing a synagogue and taking out hundreds or even thousands of Jews.

Battle’s recorded statements also include boasts about how he and other Muslims “cased” Portland area synagogues and Jewish schools and considered “popping a cop” who had found the co-defendants practicing shooting at targets at a gravel pit in rural Washington state.

“I never intended to bring harm to anyone in the Portland community,” Battle said Monday. “Not in the Jewish community, not in the law enforcement community.”

Battle said the person who recorded him, in cooperation with the FBI, deliberately riled him with terrible images of massacred children in Israel’s occupied West Bank. “I would say things inspired by the shocking images I saw,” he said.

He added that he regretted many of his statements but considered them protected under freedom of speech. “I have the freedom of speech whether you agree with what I say or not.”

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