Free Republic

SNIPPET: "NEW YORK — A jury convicted a Lebanese-born Swede on Tuesday of plotting to help Al Qaeda recruit by trying to set up a weapons-training post in Oregon and distributing terrorist training manuals over the Internet. The verdict against Oussama Kassir..."

NEW YORK – With a landscape that evoked Afghanistan, a rural town in Oregon seemed in James Ujaama's mind to be the perfect setting for a militant jihad training camp to teach Muslim fighters survival and combat skills. The terrorist camp Ujaama envisioned to produce fighters against the Taliban's enemies in Afghanistan never came to fruition, and he no longer supports terrorist causes, he told a jury during a terrorism trial Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. "I sympathized and I have supported terrorists in the past, which was foolish. I was not thinking at that time and I wish I...

NEW YORK — Speaking publicly for the first time, former Seattle resident James Ujaama testified Tuesday about his efforts in 1999 to create a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon for would-be jihad warriors wishing to take up the fight against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Among the instructors would be Oussama Kassir, a Swedish jihadist who once bragged he had been a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. Ujaama, appearing thin and graying and dressed in oversized prison overalls, took the witness stand in the terrorism conspiracy trial of Kassir, who is accused of traveling from London to the...

Oussama Abdullah Kassir, 43, who was extradited from the Czech Republic on terrorism charges in 2007, faces multiple charges including supporting al-Qaeda by attempting to set up the camp in rural Oregon from 1999 to early 2000 and later setting up websites on explosives and poisons.

Disaster Looms in Pakistan Decorum was abandoned as accusations ricocheted between the wood-panelled walls of Pakistan's national assembly on Monday night. "Murderers! Murderers of innocent people!" screamed an MP from a religious party, his yellow turban shaking as he wagged a finger towards the government benches. Five female parliamentarians, their faces concealed behind black and white burkas, slapped the benches with open palms. Another mullah stood up and started shouting. The speaker strained to maintain order. Others were less captivated by the debate on last month's siege of the Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people died. One...

A Seattle man convicted of supplying Taliban fighters with cash and computers returned to federal court Tuesday to face charges that he violated his parole by traveling overseas with a false Mexican passport. James Ujaama denied the multiple federal counts that could land him back in prison for two years. Arrested in Belize one month ago, Ujaama had only four months left on his parole stemming from the 2003 conviction. His attorney, Peter Offenbecher, said he hadn't yet gathered all the information that led to his client's arrest. "I'm investigating the facts to determine the appropriate course of action," he...

IT SAYS its members brought about the conviction of radical Egyptian-born cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, uncovered insurgent tactics in Iraq and are now working to provide intelligence from North Korea.The organisation is not the US Central Intelligence Agency or Britain's MI6 but Vigil, a shadowy network of retired spies, senior military personnel, anti-terrorism specialists and banking experts. The group's director Dominic Whiteman said he set up Vigil with two other businessmen last year to act as an conduit between retired spies who were still party to good, raw intelligence, and the police and security services. "This evidence was just getting...

Abu Hamza, the militant, London-based Muslim cleric, maintained close contact with the leadership of al-Qa'eda during the years when it operated a worldwide terrorist network from Afghanistan, according to FBI files. Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph state that Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque, north London, dealt personally with Abu Zubeidah, Osama bin Laden's director of operations. Zubeidah, a Palestinian who is now in US custody, communicated bin Laden's instructions and messages from his hideout in Afghanistan to al-Qa'eda cells around the world. Hamza had the power to refer recruits to Zubeidah for "leadership training" in Afghan...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Investigators probing the London terror bombings are focusing on an elusive British Muslim suspect who is connected to a previous plot to set up a terrorist training camp in rural southern Oregon, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Officials told both NBC News and CNN Wednesday that Haroon Rashid Aswat, believed to be a mastermind of the London bombings, is the same British-born Muslim of Indian descent who scouted a Bly, Oregon ranch to set up a terror camp. These officials said Aswat, a Pakistani national being sought for questioning as a person of interest by British authorities,...

Authorities Questioning Seattle Man About Individual Sought in Connection With London Bombings An American once accused of trying to set up a terror training camp in Oregon is being questioned about a man sought in the London bombings, U.S. officials said Friday. James Ujaama, a Muslim convert from Seattle, was charged in 2002 with trying to set up a terrorist training camp for Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for cooperating with terrorism investigations until 2013. Three federal law enforcement officials said Ujaama is being questioned about Haroon Rashid Aswat, who also was...

A suspect in the London bombings lived in a Central Seattle mosque in early 2000 after he had scouted out a possible terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore. Aswat came to the Northwest in 1999 when James Ujaama, a former Seattle activist, tried to set up a jihad training camp in rural Oregon. During that time, Aswat and Kassir "met potential candidates for jihad training, they established security for the Bly property through the use of guard patrols and passwords, and they and others participated in firearms training and viewed a video recording on the subject of improvised poisons," according...

Authorities investigating the London bombings have launched a worldwide manhunt for a man officials believe attempted to set up a terrorist training camp in Southern Oregon. A law enforcement official told The Oregonian on Wednesday evening that the man, Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, was one of several people prosecutors had linked to the plans to establish a training camp in Bly, a small town near Klamath Falls. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cautioned that the purported link between Aswat and the London bombings was far from certain. Last year, American prosecutors indicted a London-based Muslim cleric, Abu...

Terrorists came from Finsbury Park Mosque in London  Militant Islam Monitorhttp://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/294UK .. You will pay ..Bin Laden's on waySickening sight .........Abdul Rehman Saleem of the Al-Muhajiroun, burns the Union Jack and warns of bloodshed on the streets of London Richard Reid (shoe bomber) and Germaine Lindsay( London Subway bomber) went to the Finsbury Mosque in London, it appears that Zacarias Moussaoui and James Ujaama of Seattle WA also attended the Finsbury Mosque along with the two suicide bombers who attacked Mike's pub in Israel last year. British police have released the former leader of the Finsbury Park Mosque Abu...

CONRAD, Mont. — Shannen Rossmiller finds early mornings are best for hunting terrorists. When it's 4 a.m. in this one-stoplight prairie town, it's 3 p.m. in, say, Karachi, Pakistan, the sweltering hours just before the evening call to prayer. That's when Rossmiller, while her husband and three children sleep, finds the Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards frequented by radical Muslims and jihad warriors are busiest. It is when Rossmiller pursues her deadly serious hobby: citizen cyberspy. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Internet has become sprinkled with self-proclaimed intelligence agents and freelance threat analysts like Rossmiller — ordinary...

SEATTLE (AP) -- James Ujaama, the American Muslim accused of backing al-Qaida, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to provide cash, computers and fighters to the Taliban, the former Afghan rulers who sheltered Osama bin Laden. Ujaama pleaded guilty to a single felony count in an appearance before U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein, said John Hartingh, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Other charges were dropped, including one accusing Ujaama of plotting to set up a terrorist camp in Oregon. Ujaama made a brief statement, saying he accepted responsibility for his actions and knew they were wrong. Ujaama said he...

Ujaama, a Muslim convert formerly of Seattle, will be released this summer after serving two years in federal prison for aiding the Taliban government in Afghanistan. [Ujaama] took the opportunity to say he disagreed with the laws under which he had been charged and convicted. He also defended his attempt to set up a militant jihad training camp in Bly, Ore., four years ago as "legitimate and legal religious training." … Ujaama told the court yesterday he would work to change the laws he disagrees with — in this case, a 1999 presidential directive prohibiting U.S. citizens from providing aid,...

Bin Laden's own doctor once treated Ujaama By Mike Carter, Feb 12, 2004 Seattle Times staff reporter During one of James Ujaama's trips to aid the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2000, the former Seattle native fell ill and was treated by Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the most-wanted terrorists in the world and Osama bin Laden's adviser, confidant and personal physician. "It gives you an idea of the circles in which Ujaama found himself," noted one federal law-enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It would be like you or me getting a bellyache and having the U.S....

A militant Muslim who reportedly traveled from London to Oregon in 1999 to scout out a possible terrorist training camp has been arrested in Sweden. The arrest yesterday of Oussama Kassir — who authorities say once boasted of being "a hit man" for Osama bin Laden — appears linked to the federal investigation into Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical London cleric accused of sending Kassir to the United States to help James Ujaama, of Seattle, and others train for jihad. Ujaama pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to supply goods and services to the Taliban in Afghanistan. As part of...

Federal inmate James Ujaama, the former Seattle man who pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban, has been moved to New York to testify before a grand jury investigating a militant London cleric believed to be a top al-Qaida recruiter. Ujaama, 37, is the key witness in a criminal case federal prosecutors are building against Abu Hamza al-Masri, a former imam at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, said federal law-enforcement sources who agreed to speak only if they were not identified. A federal grand jury in Manhattan is investigating Abu Hamza's alleged efforts to help Ujaama and others set up...

London (CNSNews.com) - A plea deal made by an American backer of the Taliban may lead to the extradition to the U.S. of one of Britain's most outspoken radical Muslims. James Ujaama pled guilty to conspiring to support the Taliban in federal court in Seattle on Monday. Prosecutors recommended that he be sentenced to two years in prison, although the charge against him carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Ujaama once worshipped at London's Finsbury Park Mosque and ran the website of preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri. At the court hearing, Ujaama made a brief statement accepting responsibility for...