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December 13, 2005

US: Islamist Camp in Oregon - Man Charged

Back in August, we wrote of Haroon Rashid Aswat, (pictured) who is currently in detention in Britain, suspected of planning the 7/7 bombings. He was arrested in Zambia shorly after 7/7 and was under an extradition order to the United States over a plan to set up a training camp in Bly, Oregon. While he awaits the possibility of a trial over 7/7 and al Qaeda membership in the UK, it may be a while before Aswat is extradited to the US.

Another man who is named in the extradition order is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, a.k.a. Abu Hamza al-Masri. (pictured, right), who is currently in Belmarsh awaiting deportation to Egypt. Aswat and hook-handed Abu Hamza were both involved in the infamous Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, and are believed to have helped set up Britain's now-disbanded extremist/terror group, Al-Muhajiroun.

According to a July report by CNN, the US Justice Department charged James Ujaama from Seattle with giving material support for terrorism for proposing the Oregon terror camp. Ujaama (pictured below, left) pleaded guilty to conspiring to support the Taliban in April 2003.

In a plea agreement, his sentencing was dropped from the potential of ten years' imprisonment, as he promised to give evidence against Abu Hamza. The Justice Department suggested he should serve only two years in prison (including the time he has already spent in custody), and to have three years' of supervised release.

The Guardian wrote:

Ujaama had a reputation in Seattle for helping minority ethnic children avoid drugs, and published books on how to be an entrepreneur. The Washington state legislature recognised his efforts by declaring June 10, 1994, James Ujaama Day.

A separate indictment from 2004 also named Abu Hamza/Mustafa Kamel Mustafa as a co-conspirator. He is supposed to have discussed the terror camp proposals in 1999.

A fourth man was mentioned in the July CNN report - Oussama Kassir. He is the "conspirator number 2" in the Ujaama case. In Ujaama's indictment, it is alleged men identified as 1 and 2 came to New York on Nov 26, 1999, and then went to Oregon "for the purpose of evaluating the Bly property as a jihad training camp."

Apparently, the location at Bly, 50 miles east of Klamath Falls, was deemed by Kassir to be too small, even though it looked like Afghanistan, according to one of the conspirators. Kassir is reported to have turned down the idea of establishing a camp because there were not enough recruits.

In 1998, according to the Guardian, Kassir was in prison in Sweden, convicted for threatening a policeman. According to ABC News, Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, was convicted of weapons violations in Sweden in 2003. In September 2003, Kassir, who was then 37, was charged under new anti-terror laws of "planning a terrorist crime". However, only a few days later, according to Rantburg, on October 25, the terror charges were dropped for insufficient evidence. Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstroem, the prosecutor stated that a number of weapons were confiscated from Kassir's apartment.

In Ujaama's trial it was alleged that Kassir called himself a "hitman for Bin Laden", and an active supporter of al-Qaeda, from FBI sources.

Today, KATU.com states that Oussama Kassir has been charged with the plot to set up the training camp in Bly.

Oussama Kassir had been arrested in Prague, the Czech Republic, on Sunday, and is currently being detained in the Czech Republic while extradition orders are prepared in the US.

With Kassir in detention, the indictment against him was unsealed in a US District Court in Manhattan.

Prosecutors claim a witness saw Kassir in possession of a compact disc with information about improvising poisons.

In a press release, Alice S. Fisher, Assistant Attorney General, stated "Supporters of terrorism must know that they should not feel safe in trying to hide overseas. We will work to bring these individuals to justice, however long it takes."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 13, 2005 11:55 PM

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