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Captain Hook Tried to Establish Oregon Terror Training Camp
A radical Muslim cleric was arrested Thursday in London, accused in a U.S. indictment of trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon while providing aid to both al-Qaida and the Taliban, officials said. Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, also is charged in the 11-count indictment with hostage-taking and conspiracy in connection with a December 1998 incident that left four tourists dead in Yemen. "Those who support our terrorist enemies anywhere in the world must know that we will not rest until the threat they pose is eradicated," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in announcing the arrest Thursday. Al-Masri, who heads the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, was arrested at the his London home, British authorities said. Ashcroft said U.S. authorities were seeking his extradition. According to the indictment, Mustafa tried to establish the terrorist camp in Bly, Ore., between October 1999 and early 2000. He was also charged with specifically providing material support to al-Qaida and the Taliban to foment jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan.
Al-Masri - who has one eye and hooks for hands, which he says were lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s - has been the focus of terror suspicions for years in Britain. He formerly preached at a London mosque linked to several terrorist suspects, including Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid. The British government has also accused him of providing "advice and support" to al-Qaida and the Islamic Army of Aden, the organization that claimed responsibility for the attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors off the coast of Yemen. In February in Seattle, a Muslim convert with ties to Hamza, James Ujaama, was sentenced to two years in prison. He had pleaded guilty last year to aiding the Taliban. Ujaama, 38, was arrested in July 2002 and was indicted on two charges: conspiring to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore., and using a firearm to further the conspiracy. In April 2003, the government dropped those charges and filed a superseding complaint alleging that Ujaama brought money, computer equipment and a recruit to Taliban officials in Afghanistan. Prosecutors let him plead guilty in exchange for his cooperation in terrorism investigations. In particular, they wanted to hear what he knew about Hamza, whose Web site Ujaama once ran.
Posted by: Steve 2004-05-27 |
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