Ujaama and Mohammed

Late Wednesday night authorities began searching for two "people of interest" in relation to the Beltway Sniper. What's interesting is that one of the two "persons of interest" was identified as a Tacoma, Washington man connected with Fort Lewis. Stuck in the middle of this story is something even more interesting. The FBI is also searching a militia training camp in Marion, Alabama, in possible connection to the sniper case.

Step back for a moment. What's the common link between Tacoma, Washington and Marion, Alabama?

James Ujaama is currently being held without bond as a material witness and has been indicted for attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon. Once a model citizen and entrepreneur, Ujaama crossed over into the dark world of Abu Hamza, a man that Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hamilton recently called "perhaps the best known terrorist in the world." Hamza is associated with the Islamic Army of Aden, a Yemeni terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the USS Cole bombing in October of 2000. The FBI believes that Hamza is an al-Qaeda recruiter, whose London mosque was even visited by Zacarias Moussaoui.

The US government believes that after moving to London in the late 1990s Ujaama became a disciple of Hamza, who personally wrote a letter of recommendation that Ujaama used to enter an Afghanistan training camp. For the past five years Ujaama has studied from one of the best terrorists around. In return Ujaama offered his computer expertise to help Hamza maintain militant anti-American web sites. This is nothing new to Ujaama, creator of StopAmerica.org, a Web site that is highly critical of US foreign policy. It wasn't always so; Washington state lawmakers named June 10, 1994, James Ujaama Day, in recognition for his community service. That day he also received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. My, how times have changed.

Enter Semi Osman. Back home, Ujaama was a frequent patron of a mosque in Seattle, whose imam was a vocal Lebanese man named Semi Osman. Searching for an Islamic commune, Osman discovered some property outside of Bly through a friend of his wife. What Osman saw as a commune, Ujaama saw as an opportunity for business with his old master Abu Hamza.

Authorities believe that Ujaama faxed Hamza a proposal to use the property in Bly as a safehouse and terrorist training camp, remarking how the Bly terrain was very similar to that of Afghanistan. An intrigued Hamza sent a pair of operatives to evaluate the Bly property. They were Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese Sweed who claimed to be a hitman of Osama bin Laden, and Haroon Aswat, a British Indian. Looking back, Hamza must have been thrilled at the prospect of a new terror camp in the US. Indeed, he once told ABC News that America's laws make these camps easy to run, "like a picnic." But, alas, the training camp never blossomed as he hoped. In the two weeks that Hamza's trainers occupied Bly not a single recruit showed. The Seattle operators spent their time horseback riding, while Hamza's associates fumed. Oussama Kassir was so frustrated and angry with Ujaama that he threatened to shoot him.

Ujaama eventually returned to London. That could have been the end of the story. However, on September 11, 2001, 19 Middle Eastern hijackers executed the worst terrorist event in history. It was only then that the Bly cell began to unravel.

Part of their bad fortune included a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Feroz Abbasi, who was able to finger Ujaama to al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. This path led to other members of the Bly cell, including Osman, who was traced to Bly by investigators through a late 1999 routine traffic stop. The word was out. Immigration authorities arrested Osman when he appeared for a citizenship interview in Seattle. He was charged with possessing a handgun with removed serial number, and fraudulently trying to become a US citizen. The FBI obtained a search warrant for Osman's apartment and found weapons, military maps, instructions on poisoning water supplies, propaganda of Abu Hamza, and other materials related to Islamic extremism.

Osman, a Navy reservist, cooperated with authorities. When Ujaama returned to the US, the Feds were watching his every step.

Shift to Alabama. Over the summer, Scotland Yard charged Sulayman Balal Zain-ul-abidin, an alleged member of the al-Qaeda network, under Britain's Prevention of Terrorism Act for inviting individuals to undergo terrorist training. Zain-ul-abidin, aka Frank Etim, operated Sakina Security Services, an obvious front for Islamic militancy that included advertising on its Web site a combat course titled "Ultimate Jihad Challenge." The "Ultimate Jihad Challenge" was a two-week course on a 1,000-acre property in Marion, Alabama, called "Ground Zero, USA." The Alabama camp was not owned or operated by Zain-ul-abidin; Authorities believe that the British owners were used by men like Zain-ul-abidin to lure Islamic militants to learn combat training for future Islamic causes. Mark Yates and Berkeley & Associates - the company that operates the camp - have both repeatedly denied any relationship with Sakina Security Services. Both the prosecution and defense in the Zain-ul-abidin case have accepted that Yates ran a legitimate firearms course in Marion. I'm not sure if that will fly with Marion Police Chief Tony Buford. He said he became suspicious when he learned the course used buses and police vehicles as targets.

Although his lawyers deny it, authorities say that James Ujaama designed the Sakina Security Services Web site, which advertised the "Ultimate Jihad Challenge," thus linking Ujaama to Zain-ul-abidin. Furthermore, Zain-ul-abidin is known to have trained bodyguards for Abu Hamza.

By Thursday morning the police had found and arrested their two "persons of interest." John Allen Muhammad, aka John Allen Williams, and a juvenile who is possibly Muhammad's stepson, Lee Malvo, were sleeping in their vehicle when police swooped upon them. The case had been broken because the credit card that the sniper asked authorities to transfer $10 million in ransom money had been stolen in a Montgomery, Alabama liquor store double shooting about a month before. At the scene police found Lee Malvo's fingerprint. Not too bright.

An expert in combat support missions, Muhammad was "connected to" Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington - a premier Army sniper training facility. Is it possible that we will learn that Muhammed is linked to the Bly cell or even to naval reservist Semi Osman, who had an apartment in Tacoma, Washington? Why was the FBI searching "Ground Zero USA" in Marion, Alabama? Could Muhammed ever have been recruited to train at "Ground Zero USA" through Zain-ul-abidin's Web site? Last week the FBI questioned detainees at Guantanamo Bay in order to find a possible terrorism link to the sniper. At Guantanamo, did the Feds speak with Feroz Abbasi, and could he have fingered Muhammad as attending an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, or being an associate of Ujaama?

This case changes by the hour so stay tuned. It's possible that the FBI is only looking at "Ground Zero USA" to cover their bases. Given that authorities recently traveled to Guantanamo to question the terrorism angle I suppose it could be a coincidence that John Muhammad is linked to Tacoma, Washington, and Marion, Alabama - but it'd be an awfully big one.

From a pinko site, so don't mind the melodramatic writing style and completely flakey worldview:

Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin in the Clutches of an Unforgiving System

Revolutionary Worker #1049, April 9, 2000

Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a Muslim cleric and well-known activist from the 1960s, was captured by an army of FBI agents and police officials in rural Lowndes Country, Alabama on March 20. He was run down by police dogs in an Alabama meadow like a fugitive slave.

Al-Amin has now been charged with killing an Atlanta sheriff's deputy and wounding another. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is expected to demand the death penalty. At a federal court appearance in Alabama, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin declared that he is innocent of these charges. As he was taken out of court in leg-irons, under armed guard, he said, "It's a government conspiracy." There is every reason to distrust all of the claims and charges made by the authorities. The police activities surrounding Al-Amin have been quite suspicious and their version of events has been full of holes.

Al-Amin's lawyer, civil rights veteran J. L. Chester, said, "He said he did not shoot anyone. He said he did not have a gun. He fled Atlanta to save his life. He said they had been trying to kill him for years." Chester added that he believed Al-Amin was targeted "because he's a Black man who has been fighting the system since he was 16 years old."

Al-Amin, 56, has been a target of the authorities his whole life, and there is every reason to believe that he remains a target of the authorities.

In the 1960s, when he was known as H. Rap Brown, Al-Amin was a militant leader of the Black liberation struggle--known for his outspoken advocacy of armed self-defense and inner city rebellions. He was targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program. Congress passed a notorious law, the "Rap Brown Amendment," specifically aimed at stopping Al-Amin and radical activists like him from organizing resistance among the people. Rap was sentenced to prison for his militant activities, where he served three years. Since then, even as he embraced Islam and moved away from revolutionary politics, Al-Amin has been persecuted repeatedly by police frame-ups and attacks in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has been living.

Out Front and Fearless During the 1960s

H. Rap Brown was a student from a working class family in Louisiana who cut short his studies to throw himself into the civil rights struggle during the mid-1960s. He worked briefly for an anti-government program and quit in disgust, saying that such programs were designed to buy off activists emerging from the struggle. He became a leader of the most militant of the southern civil rights organizations--the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)--and participated in its campaigns to organize Black people to overthrow Jim Crow segregation. He and fellow SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael became spokesmen for the radicalization of this movement--advocating anti-imperialism, Black Power and a spirit of "by any means necessary."

Rap, who got his nickname for his powerful speaking style, became a symbol for the rising revolutionary mood among Black people. He dared say what needed saying. He strongly upheld the right of the oppressed to use militant and even armed means to defend themselves and win liberation. He was openly critical of movement leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr., who worked to confine the struggle of Black people to whatever was acceptable to the U.S. ruling class. As many young activists stopped upholding non-violence as an absolute principle, they came under attack for this. Rap answered these attacks--pointing out that Black people were fighting a system that had used massive violence for centuries to keep them oppressed, and that was using such violence on the other side of the world against the Vietnamese people.

He mocked the hypocrisy of pro-system critics, saying, "Violence is as American as cherry pie." This famous quote now appears in virtually every article reporting on Al-Amin--as if this undoubtedly true political statement was proof of his guilt in the Atlanta shooting 30 years later.

As powerful rebellions broke out in cities across the U.S. in the late 1960s, Rap Brown supported these uprisings--as a just and powerful form of resistance. He tirelessly traveled the U.S., speaking on campuses and in Black communities, organizing people to take the struggle higher. He coined the phrase, "Burn, Baby, Burn!"

The Black Liberation Struggle was the greatest domestic challenge to the U.S. capitalist/imperialist system in the twentieth century--and the authorities targeted leaders like H. Rap Brown ruthlessly.

In secret, the FBI developed their "counter-intelligence program" (COINTELPRO) into a country-wide campaign to disrupt radical organizations and "neutralize" emerging leaders. Rap was pursued, harassed, spied on, arrested, and targeted by covert operations.

One FBI memo called for writing unsigned letters to create distrust between Stokely Carmichael and Rap Brown. Another FBI conspiracy was aimed at creating bad blood between Southern-based SNCC and the Black Panther Party that was emerging in California. The FBI was determined to prevent the unification of revolutionary nationalist forces--and ceaselessly worked to create divisions, mistrust and even violent feuds. Rap, who actively supported an alliance of Black revolutionary forces, briefly accepted honorary membership in the Black Panther Party in 1968. These unification efforts ultimately collapsed under an intense-but-secret FBI campaign.

In 1967, H. Rap Brown spoke at a Black community rally in Cambridge, Maryland and proclaimed, "Black folks built America, and if America don't come around, we're going to burn America down." A rebellion followed--during which Rap was wounded in the forehead by a shotgun pellet.. Several buildings were burned down. Rap Brown was charged with inciting riot and arson.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, over a hundred rebellions broke out in Black communities across the U.S. Six days later, the U.S. Congress passed the notorious "Rap Brown Amendment" which made it illegal to cross state lines to "incite" rebellions. It was openly designed to suppress and criminalize the militant views and activities of H. Rap Brown and Black liberation activists like him.

Al-Amin was indicted for "conspiracy" and put on trial in New Orleans. One observer wrote, "The courtroom was ringed with armed National Guards. Every day you had to go through the military to get into the courtroom. Every night Rap Brown would speak to crowds of 10,000 people in the Black community. It was a city under a state of siege, practically."

Rap Brown went underground. During a countrywide manhunt, he was put on the FBI's list of "10 most wanted." In 1971, he was finally captured in an incident connected to an armed action against a New York City bar known for its police connections and its distribution of hard drugs in the Black community. Rap served six years in prison--where he converted to Islam and took the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. After leaving prison in 1976, he moved to Atlanta's poor Black community of West End Park, where he operated a grocery store, led a Muslim congregation and worked for community improvements.

Even though Al-Amin stopped considering himself a revolutionary--he remained unrepentant about his previous political activities. And he remained a target of repeated intense attacks from police. As RCP Chairman Avakian once said: "The people who run this system are completely unforgiving."

Evidence of Government Targeting

Evidence has started to surface documenting the extent of previously secret U.S. government targeting of Al-Amin. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that for at least five years during the 1990s, the FBI, ATF and Atlanta police carried out an intensive investigation of Al-Amin and anyone they considered associated with him. As part of their operations, the FBI had paid informants within Al-Amin's Community Mosque. The Atlanta Police Department's Intelligence Squad gathered information on over 130 people , many of them members of the Mosque, and specifically focused on eight Muslim men that police considered Al-Amin's "inner circle." This campaign of political police also spied on Muslim circles in New York City.

The FBI conducted their spying operation as part of their country-wide "anti-terrorism task force"--which continued the FBI's Cointelpro operations in the 1980s and '90s. The Atlanta police conducted their parallel operation under the guise of murder investigations. Police never brought any charges against Al-Amin.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote in its coverage of these government spy operations: "Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin says the government is out to get him. For at least five years in the 1990s, that was true."

In 1995, at the height of this political police campaign, Al-Amin was arrested by a huge force including Atlanta's FBI Anti-Terrorist Task Force and ATF agents--he was accused of shooting a man in the foot. This police set-up fell apart when the man announced that the police had pressured him into accusing Al-Amin.

A Suspicious Case from the Beginning

This current case against Al-Amin started as he was driving while Black in Georgia's notoriously racist Cobb County on May 31, 1999. The cops stopped him. They announced that the car (which he had legally bought a few months before) was reportedly stolen. When Al-Amin got out his wallet, the cop noticed a badge. Al-Amin had been made an honorary "auxiliary police officer" from the town of White Hall, Alabama, where he had deep ties reaching back to the civil rights days. It is a ceremonial badge given for assisting in community events like parades or football games.

The racist police of Cobb County charged Al-Amin with driving without proof of insurance, receiving stolen goods and impersonating a police officer. The whole thing was absurd.

On March 16, the authorities announced that they were hunting Al-Amin. They claimed that two sheriff's deputies had driven to West End Park to serve Al-Amin a warrant for failing to appear in Cobb County court. Police claim they did not find Al-Amin--but that shooting suddenly erupted. The deputies fired at least ten rounds--and in the firefight, both of them were hit. One later died.

Police announced that they had found a trail of fresh blood that went from the scene to an abandoned house a block away. They launched a country-wide manhunt for Al-Amin, saying that the surviving cop had wounded his assailant in the stomach.

Four days, later, Al-Amin was captured in Alabama. Police were embarrassed to discover that Al-Amin was not wounded and so could not have left the trail of blood leaving the scene. Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley quickly re-wrote the official explanation--now claiming that the trail of blood was probably from some unrelated incident that same night, and probably came out of the abandoned house, not into it, and so on.

*****

The media has mocked the idea that this manhunt and arrest could possibly be the result of a government conspiracy--as Al-Amin has charged. Columnists and government officials insisted this is the "New South"--and claim that a political persecution of Al-Amin is unlikely because of the many Black people in high office in Atlanta--including the mayor and the head of the Sheriff's department.

But in fact, the rise of "Black faces in high places" has not ended the oppression of poor and working people across the Deep South. As Jim Crow was legally abolished, the discrimination and exploitation of Black people have continued, in both new and familiar forms. The impoverishment of both rural areas and urban communities, the "separate but unequal" school systems, the heavy and disrespecting tactics of the police, the continuing exploitation in textile mills, factories, and in the fields--none of this is gone, even though now some of it is administered by Black figures on behalf of the system.

In interviews with the media, people in West End Park have spoken out about the abuse they suffer constantly at the hands of the police. And, in a vivid example of this, the police launched Gestapo-like raids on the community on March 16. The police openly claimed that Al-Amin was probably being shielded among the people--an admission of the respect and support he was known to have both in Atlanta and in rural areas of Alabama. And their attack at West End was both a manhunt and punishment of the community. Police sealed off the community and a hundred cops with police dogs went house to house--while helicopters aimed searchlights from above.

Since March 16, many people have spoken out in support of Al-Amin and against the media hysteria that has attempted to demonize him and the Black Liberation movement he once symbolized. Muslim leaders in Atlanta issued a statement calling on the press not "to accuse, try and convict Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin."

A defense fund has been established, and legal forces have stepped forward to help with Al-Amin's defense. The RW will report on future developments in this important case.

This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
http://rwor.org
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