Little Green Footballs has discovered the Portland/JTTF story but he’s wrong about the local paper’s position on it. Portland’s full of crazies, Charles, but the Oregonian was right on this issue.
Just to be clear, Portland didn’t withdraw from the JTTF because of any sensitivity to civil liberties or fear of the PATRIOT Act, Tom DeLay, or Jesus. The mayor, Tom Potter, is a former police chief and over-the-top micromanager. The two cops assigned to the JTTF have Top Secret clearance, and Potter doesn’t, so there are certain things they know that he doesn’t. This drives him batty because it makes it impossible for him to micro-manage them. Potter insisted on Top Secret clearance for himself and the FBI said “no”.
So it was simply a matter of petty personal politics, nothing more.