A dramatic sentencing hearing -- in which one defendant broke down into tears and the other burst into song -- ended Monday morning with U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones denouncing Patrice Lumumba Ford and Jeffrey Leon Battle as "first-class traitors to this country." Ford and Battle, each sentenced to 18 years in prison, were the first defendants among the so-called "Portland Seven" to be sentenced for their now-admitted conspiracy to support Afghanistan's fundamentalist government, the Taliban. They are the only members of the Portland Seven who refused to cooperate with the government in exchange for lighter sentences.
Battle, who lived in Florida, Texas and California before moving to Portland in 1998, was a "devout" Jehovah's Witness who became a Muslim in his early 20s.