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Seattle Mosque Members Under Federal Investigation July 12, 2002   By KOMO Staff & News Services SEATTLE - A federal grand jury is investigating a group affiliated with a now-defunct local mosque for possible ties to the al-Qaida terror network, the attorney for a former mosque member confirmed Friday."The grand jury is looking into a lot of things related to people of this faith who have been associated with the mosque," said Robert Leen, attorney for Semi Osman, 32, of Tacoma, who is charged with trying to fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship and owning a semiautomatic handgun with the serial...

July 17, 2002 2 Seattle Men Call Inquiry Wrong on Ties to Al QaedaBy MICHAEL WILSON EATTLE, July 16 — A former inner-city mosque under investigation for suspected ties to Al Qaeda was run by mostly young African-American men who saw themselves as armed enforcers for a block overrun by drug dealers, members said. A former leader of the Seattle mosque, Semi Osman, 32, a Tacoma resident who reportedly holds a British passport, was arrested in May on immigration and weapons charges. Two members, the brothers James and Mustafa Ujaama, said in a news release on Monday that they were...

Wash. Man Arrested in Terror Probe W A S H I N G T O N, July 24 — An American Muslim activist who authorities believe took computer equipment to an al-Qaida terrorist camp in Afghanistan has been taken into custody, a federal law enforcement official said Tuesday. James Ujaama, 36, was arrested Monday night in Denver as a material witness to terrorist activity. He was flown to Virginia, where he is being held, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The alleged terrorist activity was not related to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the official, who declined...

BLY, Ore. — This hard-knocks hamlet seems an unlikely place to search for clues to the al-Qaida terrorist network. It sits on an arid plateau in Southern Oregon, about 50 miles east of Klamath Falls. With a population of about 250, it has a couple of cafes and small stores, an antique shop, and the razed foundation of an abandoned lumber mill. But in late 1999, federal authorities and other sources say, the area had something far more unusual: militant Muslims scouting a ranch outside of town as a possible training camp for jihad fighters. That aborted effort has now...

Militant Seattle Muslims, most of them American citizens, are under investigation by the FBI and a federal grand jury for allegedly supporting the al-Qaida terrorist network. Sources say members of the group — described as a "cell" by law-enforcement sources — have ties to Sheik Abu Hamza al-Masri of London, a radical Islamic cleric suspected by Western officials of recruiting for 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...