Al-Masakin Publisher Attacked :::Revised and Edited:::

Originally arrested for bomb making, FBI later accused Imam Mohamed Abdur-Rahman Kariye of Islamic Center of Portland of preaching jihad and funding a $12,000 overseas trip of six men who were later arrested and became known as the "Portland Six." Later, a seventh man Maher Hawash was added to the indictment and an eighth man Abdullah Al-Saoub (Abu Tarik) was killed in action in Pakistan. The FBI has confirmed that he was KIA'ed in Pakistan during a firefight with Pakistani troops on October 3rd, 2003. Matson was the tenth un-indicted member of the Portland Al-Qaeda cell group.

Although Kariye was cleared of any ties to terrorism, was convicted of lesser charges related to welfare fraud, after a plea bargain deal in March 2003.


Since that time, the local jihad branch has engaged in what they call "Kufr-ing." The in Islam word Kufr means "disbeliever," but the colloquial meaning of the word "Kufr" means "to cover or to conceal."

According to Al-Qaeda's system of "Kufr-ing" individuals previously associated with Al-Qaeda were to embrace both Israel and government authorities in order to deflect any further suspicion so that the core group would remain intact and the upper echelons of the local jihad cell would remain out of jail.


Organizations closely associated with the Portland jihad cell group, such as the Bilal Masjid, in Beaverton, suddenly declared themselves to be Muslim-Christian-Jewish “Interfaith” organizations and challenged the world to prove that the word “jihad” was in anyway associated with war. Other Mosques directly associated with the 9-11 terrorist attacks, such as the Islamic Center of Tucson, followed suit. Individuals like Matson and Kariye, inter alios, soon became the FBI's best friends by informing against other mujahedin and setting-up a number of other people on charges related to terrorism.

Matson was probably the first member of the local jihad group to be contacted by authorities. The way he runs his mouth about jihad and Al-Qaeda 24/7 could not have been missed by the authorities. According to Matson, he was unable to join the jihad expedition because US authorities are holding his passport. According to him, he went to pick-up his passport at a Portland post office and was directed upstairs to the third floor where three government agents from the FBI, the INS and the DOJ confronted him. Matson said that he was confronted with an enormous dossier on himself and was forced to recount the events of his life from his earliest memories. "They just gave me a politician’s smile and I just gave them a politician’s smile back," Matson said Nov. 16. Matson said that he remains unable to obtain a passport and denies that the FBI or any other government agency has questioned him since that time.

Revised Theory
Since the beginning of Al-Masakin's investigation into the events surrounding the Portland Seven jihad case, both Matson and Kariye have attempted to color Maher Hawash as the principal informant and have insinuated that Hawash traveled with the group to China as an undercover informant from the very beginning. With respect to the possibility that individuals within the Portland jihad cell, or with Masjid As-Saber, may have helped the FBI set-up the Portland Seven, Matson told Al-Masakin Nov. 16, "It was definitely an inside job."

Al-Masakin speculates that Matson gave up Kariye who gave up the rest of the group. Kariye told the group to return to Portland if they could not get into Pakistan via China. Since Matson or Kariye may have already informed against the Portland jihad cell group to the FBI, and the DOJ may have wanted to nail the case down with proof positive of their intentions to maker jihad on behalf of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, the FBI may have permitted the group to travel to China while at the same time may have alerted Pakistani authorities that the group was coming knowing well that Pakistani authorities would have barred their entry. Naturally, the Pakistani authorities denied the group entry into Pakistan. Following Kariye's instructions, all the members of the group, except Saoub (Abu Tarik), returned to Portland whereupon six of the original eight were immediately arrested.

In the mean time, Kariye tried to skip the country with his brother and four young children, with one-way tickets to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and an as yet undisclosed amount of cash. It has been reported that the amount of cash Kariye was carrying at the time of his arrest at Portland International Airport exceed his gross income reported on his tax return the previous year.

That may not have been part of his understanding with the FBI. When he got to the airport, the "traces of TNT" on his luggage charge was fabricated as a pretext for holding him while the US Attorney’s office went over the case and decided what they could charge him with. Through the maneuverings of Stanley Cohen, his flamboyant New York Jewish attorney, which resulted in a plea bargain, both Matson and Kariye may have agreed to become long-term informants.

Matson, 26, became a Muslim while he was in Mac Laren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn Oregon where he was serving a term for rape. When he was 11 years old he was convicted of raping a nine-year-old girl. Matson was released when he was 18.

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