Portland, Oregon finds itself in the crosshairs of Muslim extremism

PORTLAND, OR - Carol Forsloff - Everyone worries that terrorism will strike home, and for many people that means their own backyards; and for a journalist who comes from Oregon the reality came this morning with a press release.



[caption id="attachment_4736" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Mohamed Osman Muhamud"][/caption]

Portland, Oregon arrest photo of Mohamed Osman Mohamud 

A would-be terrorist, Mohamed Osman Mohamud,  19,  originally from Somali, with a fake bomb in an automobile was preparing to kill thousands of people gathered around Pioneer Square, as people do every year, to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree in the welcome of the holiday season in Portland.

Last year Green Heritage News was there taking pictures, interviewing people in the crowd and feeling the celebratory mood.  In that happenstance people talk about when they don't happen to be on a plane they were scheduled to be on where there is an accident that ends up killing people, one of those chilly feelings ran through a journalist's thoughts today.  Were it not for the weather conditions, added to the early precautions of security officials, this journalist might have seen the worst to report.

  













View of Pioneer Square November 2010

As it is, the day, quite sunny and fine in a small town called Natchitoches, Louisiana, brings the memories of Portland's Pioneer Square and what a great target is presented by the crowds that frequently gather there for holiday celebrations, political speeches and demonstrations of all kinds and for every known social or political cause.

Portland, Oregon prides itself on its individual freedoms, its welcome of all things diverse, its openness to religious and social differences and discussion of all kinds.  For this city to be a target is a chilly concern for anyone who wants to see the United States in all its ways reduced to a fearful shadow of the country it has been and wants to be in the future.

It was several years ago that a cadre of Muslim extremists were found in the Portland community, indicating a potential threat to the city that embraces differences with a political smile on its face.

Finding the fellow and interrupting a scheduled terrorism threat is something for whom many are grateful, not to mention a journalist for whom Portland is not just a favorite place but one's precious family home.