Muslim Social Activist Arrested in Denver
SEATTLE,
Washington, July 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S.
authorities arrested a Muslim social activist and writer, holding him
as a material witness to alleged terrorist activity, sources said
Tuesday, July 23, 2002.
James
Ujaama was picked up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in
the southwestern city of Denver Monday, July 22, on a warrant from
Seattle, where he was a member of a mosque allegedly suspected of
having what the U.S. authorities termed as terrorist links, the source
said.
"He
was taken into custody," the federal source said on condition of
anonymity.
News
agencies reported Ujaama was arrested, but not charged, and is being
held as a material witness - someone with possibly important
information - to terrorist activity, and flown to Virginia to appear
before the Eastern District federal court. But authorities said the
activity leading to Ujaama's arrest was not related to the September
11 attacks.
Being
classified as a material witness allows federal authorities to keep
Ujaama in custody indefinitely.
The
Eastern District of Virginia is the same jurisdiction handling the
prosecution of so-called "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui,
the Rocky Mountain News reported.
FBI
and prosecution officials in both Seattle and Denver, however, refused
to comment on the arrest, or on reports in Seattle newspapers that the
social activist and writer was under investigation for alleged
terrorist links.
But
the Seattle Post Intelligencer said the 36-year-old, who is well-known
in this northwestern U.S. city's black community, was picked up after
police and federal agents surrounded his aunt's home in Denver where
he was staying.
It
said the FBI was investigating the activities of Ujaama and several
other men in connection with a now-defunct central Seattle mosque,
called Dar-us-Salaam.
Members
of the mosque are suspected of allegedly conspiring to support
terrorism, including helping scout a property in southern Oregon as a
possible training camp, the Seattle Times reported.
News
agencies also reported that U.S. authorities believe Ujaama took
computer equipment to an Al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, and may have
trained there himself.
Some
worshippers are thought to have had ties to Abu-Hamza Al-Masri, a
militant cleric in London who supports Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden
and is suspected of recruiting for the organization, the paper said.
Abu-Hamza
is wanted in Yemen on terrorism charges.
Reports
said Ujaama was suspected of working for a British firm called Sakina
Security Services, whose web site - since shut down by London -
advertised U.S.-based paramilitary training it called the
"Ultimate Jihad Challenge."
He
also reportedly runs a Web site called stopamerica.org, which opposes
U.S. foreign policy.
Commenting
on the site, Ujaama said, "Some people told me 'stop America'
might be too strong…I don't want to 'stop America.' I want to stop
American foreign policy."
But
Ujaama's brother Mustafa, who was briefly detained Monday, denied in a
statement that either he or his brother were "terrorists,"
branding the federal investigation as "horrible and utterly
ridiculous."
In
a jailhouse interview Tuesday with Denver’s Rocky Mountain News,
Ujaama said he had never heard of Al-Qaeda until the September 11
attacks.
"I
wasn't planning any terrorist attacks, I'll tell you that - or
delivering laptops to terrorists," he said.
Ujaama
professed to know little about why he had been apprehended. "They
told me I'm a material witness. They haven't told me much else,"
reported the paper.
In
a statement issued a week ago, Mustafa said his brother had traveled
to London and to the Middle East but said it was unfair to call him a
terrorist "because of where we have prayed."
When
asked if he, himself, was linked to terrorism, Mustafa Ujaama said,
"No. Why [do] you ask me that? Of course not. I'm a veteran. I'm
an American citizen.”
Ujaama
declined, however, to answer whether he had traveled to Afghanistan,
whether he met with members of the Taliban and where he was on
September 11.
"Things
get twisted around," he said. "At this point in time, I
think it's better to not say anything."
Of
his arrest, Ujaama said, "I think it's a shakedown. It's a form
of our government's abuse of its power."
"They're
fishing," he added. "They're fishing, because that's all you
can do when you've got nothing. They want me to come up with some
lies, or something. They probably think I know a lot more than I
really do."
His
reaction to the events of Sept. 11, he said, was much the same as that
of most other Americans. "I was in shock," he said. "I
didn't believe it. I could not believe it."
But
Ujaama repeatedly blasted U.S. President George W. Bush’s
administration and asserted Americans still have not heard the truth
about its ties to corporations that have been caught up in accounting
scandals and devastating bankruptcies in the past year.
"Our
government has gone completely berserk, and it's in a quest to line a
few people's pockets," he said.
The
brothers are well-known within their community as social activists who
rid their neighborhood of drugs and prostitution by recruiting former
gang members and others into Dar-us-Salaam.
The
arrest comes amid a crackdown by U.S. authorities on possible members
of terrorist organizations amid fears that the United States could
come under fresh attack.
Scores
of people have been detained in the United States on suspicion of
having links with outlawed organizations – detentions that have
drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Ujaama
is expected to be returned to Seattle to face a possible trial, news
reports said.
|
