Posted on 07/30/2002 1:46:18 AM PDT by sarcasm
An Algerian who infiltrated a London mosque for the British intelligence service has shed new light on suspected links between the 1999 activities at an Oregon ranch and the al-Qaida terror network.
In a telephone interview from London yesterday, Reda Hassaine said two Egyptian-born men known to have visited the Bly, Ore., ranch and are suspected of inspecting it as a possible terror-training camp are direct subordinates of the London-based Muslim radical Abu Hamza.
The two men came to Hamza's mosque in 1998 directly from terror-training camps in Afghanistan, he said.
Hamza, a London cleric who lost both hands and an eye while fighting in Afghanistan, is wanted in Yemen for alleged ties to terrorists.
They wore Afghan combat clothes to the mosque, calling themselves mujahedeen, the Arabic word for jihad warrior.
Hassaine, who was gathering information for the British MI5 intelligence agency and the French General Directorate for External Security between 1997 and 2000, said the two men were at the top of his watch list.
"For me personally, it is sure that they belong to a terrorist network," Hassaine said. "There is no doubt ... they were completely linked to al-Qaida and what was going on in Afghanistan."
Hassaine, who fled war-torn Algeria in 1994, said he quit working for intelligence agencies in 2000 because his warnings were being ignored.
That attitude changed last September.
"They woke up," he said.
Hassaine said each of the Egyptian-born men had separate roles for the terror network; one of the men was the military specialist, the other an intelligence adviser. Both are living in London. Neither has been arrested or formally accused of any wrongdoing.
Hassaine said he was not aware of any connection between the two men and James Ujaama and Semi Osman, two Seattle-area men who are in federal custody.
Federal criminal justice sources, however, say Ujaama worked directly with the two to set up a terrorist boot camp. The sources said the two men left angry and disappointed because they didn't have enough recruits.
James Ujaama's brother, Mustafa, yesterday disputed those assertions, saying members of a Seattle mosque were interested in buying property in Oregon to use as a farm and a summer camp, not as a potential training ground for terrorists.
Ujaama and Osman are in custody while the Federal Bureau of Investigation examines their possible ties to terrorists. Both allegedly traveled between London and Oregon and have had contact with Abu Hamza.
Hassaine said he doesn't know James Ujaama or Osman.
"I don't even know what (Osman) looks like," Hassaine said. Nor did he recognize published pictures of James Ujaama.
Mustafa Ujaama said yesterday that he visited the Oregon ranch once, on behalf of a Seattle mosque that he founded -- not because they'd been sent by Abu Hamza.
"I was in charge of finding the farm," Mustafa Ujaama said. "It was a community economic-development project."
He called the trip a "feasibility study" for buying a farm to supply the Muslim community with lamb meat for the religious holidays and a place to send young people for summer retreats. Mustafa Ujaama was at the ranch only one day.
"We rode horses and then left," Ujaama said.
"We couldn't find out who was the owner. That and it was so far, we decided it wasn't a good purchase."
He said he did not know how, why or even if James Ujaama traveled to the ranch. The Rocky Mountain News reported today that James Ujaama, who was picked up by authorities in Denver last week, will be sent to Virginia.
Ujaama is being held as a material witness in a federal grand jury probe taking place in that state, though authorities have not provided any details.
Hassaine, 40, and a former journalist with the Algerian Horizons newspaper, said he spied on the radical Islamic movements in London "because they were supporting Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, GIA, who took credit for the assassinations of Algerian journalists and civilians."
For his efforts, Hassaine has put his life in jeopardy.
In a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. June documentary, "The Recruiters," Abu Hamza said of Hassaine:
"Anyone who is cooperating and spying for Muslims against the holy war is a legitimate target. And sometimes they are Muslims still, but they are tempted by gifts by the other governments, and they are still in Islam, but they are working against Islam. ...
"It's OK to kill them by slitting their throats, or by shooting them, any way you can deter them and others like them to do such a thing."
Meanwhile, the attorney for Semi Osman, the Tacoma man indicted last month on immigration and gun charges and believed to be connected to Abu Hamza and Ujaama, has subpoenaed an FBI agent to appear at a federal court hearing next month, claiming the bureau lied about why they wanted to search Osman's home and car.
Osman has been charged with fraudulently trying to obtain U.S. citizenship and possessing a handgun with its serial number rubbed off.
Although he has not been charged with any offenses related to terrorism, a government request for a search warrant covering Osman's computer says investigators were looking for evidence of "material support for terrorists or foreign terrorist organizations."
In court papers filed July 18, Osman's attorney, Robert Leen, subpoenaed FBI agent Richard Conte, who prior to Osman's May 17 arrest "had conducted a lengthy investigation into the defendant's purported ties to suspected terrorists and alleged international terrorism."
According to Leen, the FBI filed search warrants for Osman's home and car under constitutionally false pretenses so agents could "conduct general exploratory searches for evidence of terrorism and terrorist related activities."
"We couldn't find out who was the owner. That and it was so far, we decided it wasn't a good purchase."
Now that's interesting. They claim they went out to see the land, but couldn't find the owner. So they rode horses around the place? And whose horses? Did they bring along their own horses? Where do these men keep their horses? In Seattle, or did they just decide to use some local horses and simply caught some wandering by?
If I remember right, the owner did meet them according to another article posted here.
Islamic terrorists just wanna have fun.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.