Posted on 07/31/2002 7:33:13 AM PDT by alloysteel
Just when you think you know somebody, he goes and gets himself detained by the FBI for questioning in connection with alleged ties to the terrorist network of Osama bin Laden.
So, who do you stand by: your country or an individual who you've known all your life-but who may not be what he seems to be?
Such is the predicament of the friends and relatives of James Ujaama, a 36-year-old American black Muslim convert also known as James Earnest Thompson and Ahmed Bilal, who was born in Denver, raised in Seattle, and moved to London in 1996 to worship under militant Muslim cleric and al Qaeda recruiter Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Masri.
Federal authorities have alleged that Ujaama/Thompson/Bilal delivered laptop computers to the Taliban in Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion last fall, and that he possessed documents about poisoning America's water supply (reportedly confiscated from his Denver residence this week). Based on interrogations of Guantanamo Bay detainees, federal agents also believe Ujaama played a role in scouting out a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon.
Ujaama hasn't been charged with anything. He is, of course, innocent until proven guilty of any terrorism-related allegations. But if you are a family member or old acquaintance of such a suspect, you might properly feel alarmed. Angry. And maybe even secretly suspicious of the person you thought you knew so well, but perhaps had deep, unspoken doubts about over the years.
If you are a prominent local black activist or politician, however, you whip out your race card and start making excuses, spreading blame, and mouthing off when chastened silence would be the wiser course.
"I don't know everything James Ujaama did when he was in London," said Charlie James, a black community activist in Seattle who heads something called the "Organization of African American Unity." "But I've been knowing (sic) him all his life." Ujaama-who founded an extremist pro-Muslim website after September 11 called "StopAmerica.org" and visited Pakistan several times since the terrorist attacks -has a "streak of militancy," James acknowledged. But he declared unequivocally that Ujaama is not a terrorist.
Ron Sims, King County, Wash. executive and the highest-ranking African American elected official in the state, echoed the declaration publicly. Of Ujaama and his younger brother, Mustafa, Sims said: "These two gentlemen are community activists, not terrorists." Larry Gossett, a black King County councilman added: "Both of these cats have had a positive, contributing role in the African American community here."
James Ujaama's "biggest problem is that he's so damn inquisitive that he'll go anywhere anyplace anytime. I think that's what got him in trouble," Charlie James naively pontificated. Most of us satisfy our inquisitive impulses by visiting a library, not by hopscotching across hotbeds of al Qaeda activism. But never mind that. Building on this innocent scholar image, James told another reporter that Ujaama simply traveled abroad "to see how other Muslims are living." He's "a curious guy," James said. "He goes out to see the world."
Where did Ujaama, a young, self-employed computer technician of limited means, get the money for all these travels?
Of Ujaama and his brother's visit to the Bly, Oregon site suspected of being a terrorist training camp, Charlie James shrugs. It was simply a recreational "practice shooting" trip, he pooh-poohs. Practice for what?
The questions refuse to enter James' mind. Instead, he complains that "It's the McCarthy era all over again" and suggests that news coverage of Ujaama's activities is racist. "If he was a white youth doing the same thing, I don't think it would say terrorist. But because he's a Muslim and an African-American, it comes up terrorism." (Hello? Has he not read about Taliban Johnny Walker and Jose Padilla?)
In the name of "African American Unity," the political friends of James Ujaama refuse to believe he is anything other than a benign minority community activist under attack by a biased government. This self-serving love of racial demagoguery is blind, dumb, and dangerous.
Purely innocent, we all did that, right?
Radical Islam is an insane murder cult, and "moderate" Islam is its Trojan Horse in the West.
I absolutely *hate* Ron Sims as well as all of these parasitic, mealy-mouthed, race baiting, so-called "black leaders" around here. Only the ignorant and the selfish follow them.
The Taliban does not exactly equal al Qaeda. If those Taliban did something wrong then it is right to talk to him. Even so, why not question him instead of detaining him?
That was you?! Geeze, you run with a rough crowd!-)
The Al Qaeda used laptops to compose terror orders, then sent couriers to the West with discs for dissemination of attack orders and plans. Ujaama was clearly one of the Al Qaeda couriers.
Do you think he only thought he was going back and forth with commercial information on Afghan rugs?
Please, we are in a war against islamic terrorists, breathe in a deep dose of reality.
Unless you secretly sympathize with the enemies of the USA, in which case I understand your defending this terrorist courier while pretending not to understand what was going on.
If so then I guess he should be detained.
DECEMBER 1999 : James Ujaama was arrested 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.
- "Seattle Muslim denies allegations of ties to terror network," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Wednesday July 17, 2002 by CHRIS McGANN AND ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr. SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/722854/posts?page=91#91
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