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--> --> Undercover work to resume in Oregon PORTLAND (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice and the Oregon State Bar have reached an agreement that will allow federal undercover operations to resume immediately, said Michael Mosman, U.S. attorney for Oregon. "We are now at liberty to get back into undercover work and we intend to do so," Mosman said Wednesday. The dispute centered on a bar rule that prohibits attorneys from lying. Prosecutors said the rule could apply to them if they supervised law enforcement agents who lied about their true identities and asked the Oregon Supreme Court for a prosecutorial exception to the rule against lying. But the court refused. In response, federal law enforcement officials said they had to suspend undercover operations in Oregon because federal rules required prosecutors to supervise undercover agents. In January, the bar association adopted a rule change allowing attorneys to supervise lawful undercover operations, but in April the Supreme Court rejected it as being too broad. The next month, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the Oregon bar, seeking to block it from disciplining federal prosecutors. The suit said that federal rules requiring prosecutors to supervise undercover operations superseded the bar association's rules. In the meantime, the bar in September adopted a new rule allowing prosecutors and other attorneys who receive government funds to supervise undercover operations. Last month, the state Supreme Court rejected the new rule as being too narrow, but said it would accept one that allowed all attorneys to supervise lawful undercover operations. Although the rule looks very similar to the first one rejected by the court, the justices said the new version better defined what a lawful covert operation is. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing