Posted on 07/28/2002 1:37:16 AM PDT by Wallaby
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DENVER - Federal agents on Thursday seized two computers and two floppy disks from a house where an American Muslim activist had been staying when he was arrested as a material witness to terrorist activity, his brother said.
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Federal authorities speaking on condition of anonymity have said authorities believe James Ujaama, 36, took computer equipment to an al-Qaida terrorist camp in Afghanistan. |
James Ujaama was arrested Monday at his grandmother's home. Mustafa Ujaama, his brother, said he did not know what was on the disks that were taken from the home. One of the computers belonged to Mustafa Ujaama and the other was his son's, he said. FBI spokesman John Lipka confirmed that agents went to the grandmother's house but would not say why. "We are in furtherance of an active investigation," he said.
Federal authorities speaking on condition of anonymity have said authorities believe James Ujaama, 36, took computer equipment to an al-Qaida terrorist camp in Afghanistan. They said authorities also were investigating whether James Ujaama trained at the camp.
Earlier news reports said James Ujaama was taken to Virginia after his arrest, but his lawyer, Daniel Sears, said he was jailed in Denver. Justice officials would not confirm where he was being held.
Sears said James Ujaama had not been charged with any crime. He said a hearing has been scheduled to review the legality of the detention, but he could not say where or when. He said his client is outspoken and has publicly disagreed with the government on Middle East issues.
"I hope we have not advanced to the point in this country where we are jailing people because the government may disagree with their beliefs," Sears said.
Agents arrived at the home at about 5 p.m. and spent about two hours inside. Mustafa Ujaama said they had a warrant.
The brothers moved to Denver this month from Seattle. Mustafa Ujaama was detained briefly on Monday when his brother was arrested. Their aunt, Robin Thompson, stood outside the home during the search.
"They could have done this in Seattle. We are Americans. I don't know why they're doing this," she said.
The brothers were born James Ernest Thompson and Jon Thompson and grew up in Seattle. Some community leaders there have credited them with helping to rid their poor, black neighborhood of drugs and prostitution by recruiting former gang members and others into the Dar-us-Salaam mosque.
That now-defunct mosque is being investigated for possible links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
Meanwhile, a federal magistrate Friday denied a request from two Denver newspapers to open a hearing to determine if James Ujaama was being held in federal custody illegally.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer also denied a request from the newspapers' attorneys to stay his order so they could appeal, saying such a delay would be unfair to Ujaama.
"There has been an order from the eastern district of Virginia that all matters related to this proceeding shall be sealed," Shaffer said. He said federal court rules bar disclosure of any information regarding a grand jury investigation.
U.S. Attorney John Suthers said the closed proceeding was not at the request of the government or connected with federal investigations of extremist groups, but rather a requirement of federal court rules.
FBI has said Seattle was an easy mark for extremists amid reports that the local Muslim community has links to radical Muslim organizations.
DENVER -- Secrecy was draped over proceedings yesterday to determine whether the federal government could continue to detain James Ujaama -- a Seattle activist and Muslim convert -- as a material witness in a grand jury's terrorism investigation.
Ujaama, 36, was arrested Monday at his aunt's home in Denver but has not been charged with a crime. Typically, material-witness arrests are made when federal officials fear the individual might otherwise flee.
Yesterday morning, a federal magistrate rejected efforts by the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News to open an afternoon hearing.
"I specifically find that closure of the proceedings is necessary to protect the well-established secrecy around grand-jury proceedings," said Magistrate Craig Shaffer.
So the public was not allowed to attend an afternoon hearing, where Ujaama's lawyer tried to gain his client's freedom. And the outcome of that hearing was not disclosed by federal officials or Ujaama's court-appointed attorney, Dan Sears.
Before the hearing, Sears had said he would argue that his client's rights were violated by an arrest when there's no indication that Ujaama is suspected of a crime.
Ujaama grew up in Seattle and earned praise from some community leaders for his efforts to help disenfranchised youth quit drugs and start small businesses. In the late '90s, he became a follower and associate of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a London-based Islamic cleric and supporter of Osama bin Laden who has been under investigation for his role in an alleged effort to set up a terrorist-training camp in Oregon.
On Thursday, three days after Ujaama's arrest, federal agents descended on his aunt's Denver home with a search warrant and took two computers and other items, according to Ujaama's younger brother, Mustafa.
In years past, the Justice Department has frequently turned to the arrest of material witnesses who might offer testimony in criminal trials.
But in the post-Sept. 11 terrorism investigations, the Justice Department has broken new -- and controversial ground -- by repeatedly arresting material witnesses who might offer testimony in grand-jury proceedings, which are secret.
It's unclear just how many such arrests have been made because the Justice Department has declined to provide a list of the detainees. Ujaama's high-profile arrest earlier this week, however, is likely to increase scrutiny of Justice Department use of the material-witness statute. The Seattle branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Washington chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union are monitoring the case.
So far, the Justice Department use of the material-witness statute in terrorism grand-jury proceedings has met with mixed results.
In two earlier rulings, two federal judges in New York came to sharply different conclusions about the practice.
In an April ruling, Judge Shira Scheindlin, said that the government had resorted to an "illegitimate use" of the material-witness statute by arresting a Jordanian student as a material witness for a grand-jury investigation.
Scheindlin said the law's purpose was to secure a witness's appearance only for a court proceeding like a trial, not for a grand jury, which is an investigative proceeding.
But earlier this month, another federal judge ruled in favor of a Justice Department material-witness arrest of a man known only as "John Doe."
Chief Judge Michael Mukasey said that the arrest was legal, and said that "the Supreme Court has acknowledged that it is reasonable to detain even a person known to be innocent in aid of securing that person's testimony."
Why is it that only left wing or anti-American scumbags are described as "activists"?
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