It appears that this attempt to cow and intimidate Jordan has failed: he gave no details, and he doesn’t seem to have retracted his statement either. (Or if he did, this article certainly isn’t clear about it.) Now why the ACLU — and Muslim groups, for that matter — would consider it offensive for a law enforcement official to say that Al-Qaeda is present in a particular place is beyond me. If they succeed in gaining Jordan’s scalp, anti-terror efforts will suffer an immense setback: it will become a punishable offense merely to suggest that jihadist activity is going on, let alone to do anything about it. Be assured: the Muslim groups and ACLU will keep trying.
From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) “” In a meeting with local Muslims, Robert Jordan, the top FBI agent in Oregon, refused to elaborate on his recent comments that jihad-trained fighters are living in the state, according to an ACLU representative who attended the gathering.
Jordan, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, addressed the ACLU representative, several dozen Muslims and other religious leaders on Tuesday at the Bilal Mosque Association in Beaverton….
In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Jordan said: “We have people here in Oregon that have trained in jihadist camps in bad areas. In the bad neighborhoods of the world.” He added that the FBI knows “they’ve trained overseas, taken oaths to kill Americans and engage in jihad,” but the challenge is “to prove those things.”
Ahmed said those comments stunned him, and he wanted Jordan to speak about the remarks to a gathering at the mosque.
Peg Pfab, pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, said the meeting was helpful.
“I think Mr. Jordan and the Bilal community are all trying very hard to move ahead and to use this experience as a learning experience, so that they can be better supportive of each other,” Pfab said.
Andrea Meyer, legislative director for the ACLU of Oregon, told The Oregonian that the meeting featured a presentation by the secretary of the mosque who talked about how Jordan’s “jihad” comments have appeared in inflammatory Internet chats targeting Muslims and Arab Americans.