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."