Do Good Spies Make Good Neighbors?

When attorney general John Ashcroft suggested that the American public form a giant neighborhood-watch service after last year's terrorist attacks, people in the Portland, Ore., area must have been paying attention. The arrest last week of four U.S. citizens accused of conspiring to join al-Qaeda was the culmination of yearlong cooperation among a clutch of curious neighbors, more than 100 fbi agents and an alert deputy sheriff. Officials have accused Jeffrey Leon Battle, 32; Patrice Lumumba Ford, 31; and Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, 22, of trying to travel to Afghanistan late last year to support al-Qaeda. (They flew into Hong Kong but...

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