By the way, I've been reading a book about the settlement of Tories in Canada after the American Revolution. Some of those settled initially in New Brunswick were American blacks who had fought on the British side. Shortly after their settlement in New Brunswick, a lot of them were resettled in Sierra Leone, I take it because they found the Canadian climate hard to take.
That's part of it, I think. But there's more:
Seattle Muslim denies allegations of ties to terror network
'I'd never heard of al-Qaida until 9/11,' he says, breaking silence
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
A Seattle Muslim now under FBI investigation for possible ties to Osama bin Laden's terror network says federal authorities and the media never bothered to contact him or his brother before the allegations were circulated within government circles or printed in headlines.
Had he been given a chance, Mustafa Ujaama, 34, says he would have told them:
"I'd never heard of al-Qaida until 9/11," he said, adding that when he learned that terrorists had acted in the name of Islam, he responded, "That's not Islam."
In his first interview with any news media, Ujaama said he and his brother, James, are the victims of a misplaced government crackdown on terrorism -- and he maintains that neither did anything wrong.
In fact, neither has been charged, detained or even interviewed by federal agents.
"I have not been invited by the FBI to answer any questions," said Ujaama, adding that he feels he's already been convicted in the media.
"Muslims have become the new victims of this modern-day McCarthyism," said Ujaama, an auto mechanic and car salesman who helped found the now-defunct Dar-us-Salaam Mosque, which has been the center of a federal investigation that included 100 Seattle-area Muslims but has narrowed to a half-dozen members of the mosque. Senior government officials have confirmed that a grand jury investigation is under way.
The brothers, born with the surname Thompson, are widely known in the Central District, where James Ujaama once helped form a group to encourage black youths to start their own businesses.
Mustafa Ujaama said yesterday that his mother, Peggy Thompson, raised him and his brother to be outspoken about their beliefs, and to always follow their heart. He said he and his brother lived by those principles as they worked to launch legitimate businesses and to clean up the drug-ridden neighborhood where they established the mosque.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that federal officials had circulated a report describing activities associated with the Seattle mosque and identified an American and his brother, both Muslim converts, who could be seeking to "locate possible sites for a terrorist operation."
The FBI report also said a British citizen held at Camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay said that a man, thought to be James Ujaama, recruited him to attend an al-Qaida training camp, the paper reported.
The newspaper did not name the brothers, but reported that militants from the mosque were said to be planning to establish a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon. There, members of the Seattle mosque and others were said to have engaged in target practice.
Another key connection between alleged terrorist activities and the mosque was said to be Semi Osman, a Tacoma car mechanic now in federal custody on immigration and weapons charges. Prosecutors say he entered into sham marriages to become a U.S. citizen and may have done so to facilitate terrorism, though none of the charges against him is specific to terrorist activities.
Osman was stopped by an Oregon police officer, who discovered that two other men in the car were from England. The two men were later identified as associates of a radical cleric in London who has ties to al-Qaida, and federal officials speculated that they were scouting the area for a training camp.
The officials also reported that instructions on how to poison water sources were found in Osman's apartment, the newspaper reported.
"I heard that, and I thought of my daughter and her little friend dying from poison, and it made me sick," Ujaama said. "I would never do anything like that."
Ujaama, on advice of his attorney, would not speak in detail about visits to a ranch near Bly, Ore., but confirmed that he and others from the mosque had spent time there. Osman, his wife and two children lived at the ranch for several months in 1999.
Ujaama said Osman, a West African mechanic with a British passport, had taken his family to Oregon to live the simple life of a potato farmer and planned to raise sheep for use in Muslim religious ceremonies.
Many of the reputed links between the Seattle mosque and known terrorist sympathizers, however, appear to stem from the activities and travels of James Ujaama.
James Ujaama, 36, is a University of Washington graduate who self-published at least three books while living in Seattle. One is a novel, "Coming Up," that charts the course of two friends: Andre and Hakim. The former becomes a drug dealer, the latter a successful businessman.
He also wrote a book on becoming a entrepreneur, and another called "Young People's Guide to Starting a Business Without Selling Drugs."
He has lived in London, off and on, for the past six years. In a brief interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Monday night, he said he builds Web sites for hire and has a software business that has an office Karachi, Pakistan.
Ujaama is also listed as the founder of stopamerica.org, a Web site critical of U.S. foreign policy. The Web site, associated with a group known as Global Alliance for US Foreign Policy Change, lists offices in Los Angeles, Karachi and London.
"America's foreign policy-makers have brought hate to the people of the United States," reads a statement on the site attributed to him. "We the people of the United States charge this government and their coalition with conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes of terrorism against Muslim people in our names."
None of the Web site content espouses violence, although some messages posted to a bulletin board do.
According to various published reports attributed to unnamed federal agents, James Ujaama delivered laptop computers to the Taliban prior to Sept. 11; associated with radical Sheik Abu Hamza Al-Masri, an al-Qaida recruiter wanted in Yemen on terrorist charges; and helped set up a Web site for a radical Muslim in England.
James Ujaama called accusations against him "bogus" but declined to discuss any of the accusations in detail.
Mustafa Ujaama said there was nothing unusual in his brother's activities, including his move to London after failing to sell a screenplay in Los Angeles.
"I told him, 'Man, America is not the place. I know some people (in London) who can help,'" Mustafa Ujaama said.
James Ujaama converted to Islam in England; Mustafa had converted to Islam six years earlier, drawn by its concept that there is "no middleman" between a man and his god. He said their chosen name means "cooperative economics" in Swahili.
James Ujaama is now in the United States, but he has said he wants to clear his name and to return to London to be with his 2-year-old daughter.
"She's my life -- my little girl," he said in a telephone interview.
James Ujaama was arrested in December 1999 by Renton police after he was accused of shoplifting a $170 VCR from a Wal-Mart store. Court records show he failed to appear for a hearing, and a warrant for his arrest is outstanding. At the time, he was reportedly working as a cabdriver during a visit to Seattle.
Neither Mustafa Ujaama nor his mother said they would speak for James' political views or try to explain the details of his life, other than to say that he would never call for violence.
James Ujaama may have attended al-Masri's Findlay Park Mosque in North London, but so do thousands of Muslims who cannot, under Islamic law, be turned away, his brother said. Al-Masri, meanwhile, has said that he knows no one in Seattle.
Yesterday, Mustafa Ujaama said he is a U.S. Army veteran who considers America to be "a beautiful place." Yet in recent weeks, he said, he and his family have been "vilified."
"Guilt by association -- that's what's going on," he said.
He said that he has been followed by FBI agents and recently was stopped without cause by Seattle police while driving with his son. The Seattle officer told him, "I'm just trying to figure out what the FBI wants with you," but then let him go without a ticket, saying "OK, Mr. Ujaama, have a nice day."
On another occasion, Mustafa Ujaama said he walked up to a van parked near his home and saw a man inside, operating high-tech equipment that he took to be surveillance gear.
He said some people in his community have been shying away from him since his former mosque was identified in media reports last week.
He said the newspapers and television shows might just as well have listed his name, too.
"There's no such thing as that mosque without Mustafa," he said.
He said he insisted that the mosque remain open around the clock -- an unusual and controversial move -- so people would always have a place to pray, a hot meal and a warm place to sleep. Though he lived miles away in Southeast Seattle, Mustafa Ujaama opened the storefront mosque on a tough block in the Central District because he felt it was needed there most.
On Monday, a longtime family friend, Charlie James, called a news conference, saying the brothers would make a statement in their own defense.
His announcement was the first instance where the brothers were specifically named and publicly linked to the investigation of activities at the mosque.
The event was later canceled, and Mustafa Ujaama said the family friend acted in good faith but without clearing the move.
Yesterday, Peggy Thompson, sitting in a Capitol Hill living room surrounded by more than 100 framed pictures of her family, said news reports about her sons have shaken her family.
The news has been especially hard on her own mother, who is in her 80s and in fragile health.
"All it is, is gossip that destroys people," she said. "Our country attacks first and tries to make up for it later, since Sept. 11.
"I hope the FBI stops playing games, but I'm sure quite a few more people are going to be hurt before this is over."
P-I reporter Chris McGann can be reached at 206-448-8169 or chrismcgann@seattlepi.com