Seattle militants investigated for possible ties to al-Qaida

Additionally, federal investigators believe members of the group scouted a ranch in southern Oregon as a potential site for a terrorist training camp. About 15 of the militants visited the sagebrush-covered property near Bly, Ore., in fall 1999 to participate in target practice, and two men from Abu Hamza's mosque visited the ranch later that year, sources say. That account was supported by a relative of one of the men under investigation.

The investigation comes to light as Attorney General John Ashcroft is warning that al-Qaida maintains a "hidden but active presence" inside the United States.

The Seattle investigation has focused on some members, both African Americans and whites, of the now-defunct Dar-us-Salaam mosque in Seattle's Central Area. Federal agents have identified at least a half-dozen core members of the purported cell but have gathered information on more than 100 others who had dealings with radicals at the Seattle mosque.

The only person in custody in the investigation is Semi Osman, a British citizen and a former preacher at the mosque. Osman, 32, was indicted by the grand jury last month on charges of fraudulently trying to win U.S. citizenship and of possessing a handgun with its serial number obliterated. The government alleges that the immigration violation "was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism."

Osman's attorney, Robert Leen, acknowledges that his client is being pressured to cooperate in the federal terrorism investigation but denies that his client had any involvement with terrorism.

Authorities say Osman - a permanent U.S. resident and a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve - has knowledge of the group's activities.

One of the main figures in the group, investigators believe, is a man who grew up in Seattle, attended Ingraham High School and once worked with disadvantaged youths in the Central Area. (The Seattle Times routinely does not name criminal suspects until they are charged.) Friends describe the man as bright and kind, and they expressed disbelief that he would be involved in any terrorist activity.

A convert to Islam, the man visited Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the federal sources say. In recent years, they say, he traveled to London to work with Abu Hamza.

The man also allegedly helped set up a Web site for a British company, Sakina Security Services, that courted clients for what it called the Ultimate Jihad Challenge. That company has been charged by the British government with seeking to "assist or prepare for" terrorism, and its trial is under way in London. U.S. investigators are probing for links between Sakina and the aborted plan for a jihad camp in Oregon.

Another member of the group had converted to Islam while serving time for robbery in a Washington state prison, his mother said. She said her son "saw Islam as a way to put his life back in order," but he instead became more angry and violent.

"He's full of hatred and violence," the woman said from her home in Colorado Springs, Colo. "He sympathizes with Osama bin Laden. I hate it. We're not even speaking anymore."

Members of the purported Seattle cell have pledged allegiance to Abu Hamza, relatives say, and several have made pilgrimages to the North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park, thought to be at the vortex of militant Islamic recruiting in Europe. In recent years, the mosque has been attended by Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, and Richard Reid, the man accused of trying to blow up an American Airlines jetliner with explosives in his shoes.

Abu Hamza, who lost both hands and one eye in Afghanistan, has been under investigation for his connections to Islamic terrorism. He has praised the Sept. 11 attacks, saying recently that Muslims who did not support them "are hypocrites on the Muslim nation."

The Dar-us-Salaam mosque, which closed after being damaged in the February 2001 earthquake, had in recent years attracted worshippers with militant views on Islam. A rift occurred between the radicals, who were mostly American-born, and mainstream Muslims, many of them foreign-born.

Eventually, a large contingent of the more mainstream African Muslims moved and opened a mosque two blocks to the east on East Union Street.

Several of the Seattle militants have criminal records involving theft, and one was allegedly involved in the pistol-whipping of another mosque member. FBI officials also are investigating allegations that these individuals conducted paramilitary training exercises out of the mosque. At one point, Seattle police were told by several individuals that there was a "large amount of weapons stored inside the mosque."

Several of the men under investigation converted to Islam at another now-defunct mosque on East Cherry Street, family members and federal sources say. Many of them swore allegiance - called "byaat" in Arabic - to Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, who before converting to Islam was known as H. Rap Brown, one of the founders of the Black Panther movement. Al-Amin was convicted earlier this year of killing a Georgia sheriff's deputy trying to serve him with a summons and is serving life in prison.

Mainstream Muslim mosques across the U.S. and in the Seattle area have consistently rejected the concept of jihad and mourned with the rest of America for the victims of Sept. 11. In the weeks after the attacks, thousands of local residents rallied around mosques, offering support to members who might be subjected to racial attacks or religious intolerance.

Since Sept. 11, Ashcroft and FBI officials have said the government will focus on preventing terrorism rather than prosecuting after the fact. A massive roundup of foreign nationals on immigration violations has troubled civil libertarians, but Ashcroft defended the process in testimony before Congress yesterday.

"For 10 months, we have conducted a campaign to identify, disrupt and dismantle the terrorist threat," he told a House committee on homeland security. "For 10 months, we have been successful in protecting the United States from another massive terrorist attack, using every appropriate legal weapon in our arsenal."

Look here, a Seattle Cell-Black panthers connection. What a surprise, given that a certain computer aided hippy from Seattle named pen named "Hopsicker" hangs out with Black Panthers members has been very active in writing conspiracy theories revolving around FL flight schools. Someone posted some crap from him a while back but never bumped their thread, perhaps out of concern it would get deleted. Wonder if he knows these folks better than he lets on?

For that matter, if one of these people was a founding member of the BP movement, wonder how well Hillary knows him? : D

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