Originally referred to as "The Portland Six", Patrice Lumumba Ford, Jeffrey Leon Battle, October Martinique Lewis (Battle's ex-wife), Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, and Habis Abdulla al Saoub made up the original six members arrested in October 2002.
[1] On September 29, 2001, Battle, Ford and al Saoub were discovered while engaged in shooting practice in a gravel pit in Skamania County, Washington, near Washougal.
The group was discovered by Deputy Sheriff Mark Mercer, who was acting on a tip from a neighbor who had heard gunfire in the pit.
Battle was taped in a secretly-recorded conversation indicating that they had considered killing Deputy Mercer when confronted: "We was up there blowin it up.... We was lightin' it up... [W]e looked at it as worship because what our intentions were, to learn to shoot for.
According to the indictment, on October 17, 2001, Battle and al Saoub flew out of Portland International Airport en route to Afghanistan.
The six male members of the group traveled to China in early 2002, with the intent of entering Afghanistan to aid the Taliban.
On October 4, 2002, and the FBI in Portland, Oregon, announced the arrest of four of those original six on charges of aiding and, in some cases, trying to join al-Qaeda fighters.