12:42 PM PDT on Friday, July 1, 2005

By kgw.com and AP Staff

The two Portland police officers recently removed from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force were replaced Friday by a deputy from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Bernie Giusto and the FBI announced.

KGW

A sergeant from Giusto's office is being pulled from traffic duty and will work with the anti-terror team, reporting directly to task force offices each day. The sergeant, after a federal background check, will get a top-secret security clearance.

"I decided this was the right thing for the safety of this county, this state and this nation," Giusto said, "and we'll give up something else to provide this service and I think it serves the interest of this country."

The sheriff met with Robert Jordan, the FBI's special agent in charge for Oregon, after the Portland City Council voted two months ago to become the first community in the nation to end its involvement in the JTTF.

Mayor Tom Potter pushed for the withdrawl after the FBI refused to give him the top-secret security clearance he said he needed for full oversight of the officers assigned to the task force. Critics said the task forces have been used to spy on people, as in a Fresno, Calif. case in which a local deputy went undercover to infiltrate an anti-war group.

The local call for oversight grew stronger after the FBI wrongfully arrested Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield as a suspect in the Madrid, Spain train bombings last year -- a mistake that prompted an FBI apology.

The Portland officers removed from the task force kept their top-secret security clearances in case they're needed to respond to a terrorist attack, but city investigators will no longer do broader anti-terrorism work.

The FBI operates Joint Terrorism Task Forces in about 100 cities. The cooperative efforts between local, state and federal authorities investigate and guard against attacks.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed Freedom of Information Act requests in 10 states, including Oregon, to discover whether the task forces are obeying laws.