Bin Laden's own doctor once treated Ujaama

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter

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During one of James Ujaama's trips to aid the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2000, the former Seattle native fell ill and was treated by Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the most-wanted terrorists in the world and Osama bin Laden's adviser, confidant and personal physician.

"It gives you an idea of the circles in which Ujaama found himself," noted one federal law-enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It would be like you or me getting a bellyache and having the U.S. surgeon general show up at the door."

On the eve of Ujaama's sentencing in federal court on charges of illegally aiding the Taliban government, three sources familiar with Ujaama's statements to agents said he detailed the meeting as part of a plea agreement. The deal reduced his possible 10-year prison sentence to two years.

He will be formally sentenced in Seattle tomorrow and likely will be sent to a halfway house to serve the remainder of his sentence. It is expected the 38-year-old Ingraham High School graduate will be freed in July, two years to the day after his arrest in Denver on a material-witness warrant.

Ujaama was arrested in July 2002 as part of an international investigation into radical members of a mosque in South Seattle who traveled to Bly, Ore., in 1999 to set up and participate in a terrorist-training camp. Federal law-enforcement sources have said Ujaama — who was a key member at the now-closed Dar-us-Salaam mosque — and his plans for the camp have been directly linked to Abu Hamza al-Masri, a fiery radical cleric in London who has praised bin Laden's attacks on the United States and the West.

Ujaama has testified at least once before a federal grand jury in Manhattan, where counterterrorism prosecutors are building a case against Abu Hamza for his role in helping Ujaama with his plans in Bly. At Ujaama's sentencing, the New York prosecutor overseeing that investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Bruce, is expected to appear on the behalf of the government.

It was as an emissary of Abu Hamza that Ujaama traveled to Afghanistan in late 2000 in violation of a presidential order prohibiting U.S. citizens from providing services, goods or aid to the Taliban. President Clinton issued that order because of the Taliban's insistence on protecting bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network, which the United States blamed for bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The bombings killed 213 people, including 12 Americans.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri — the Egyptian doctor who made the house call to treat Ujaama — have been indicted for those attacks. Al-Zawahiri, according to the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" Web site, is the founder of the violent Egyptian Islamic Jihad and is believed to be an "adviser and doctor" to bin Laden, who is thought to be hiding in Afghanistan. The U.S. government has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zawahiri's arrest.

Peter Bergen, one of the few Western journalists to interview bin Laden and the author of "Holy War Inc.," wrote that "the profound impact of al-Zawahiri on bin Laden's thinking has become increasingly clear, and some have suggested that this little-known physician is more important to al-Qaida than bin Laden himself."

"We have said that we believe James Ujaama had made important contacts that justified the plea agreement," said U.S. Attorney John McKay, who otherwise would not comment. Ujaama's attorneys, Peter Offenbecher and Robert Mahler, declined comment.
 
When Ujaama pleaded guilty last April, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the government expected Ujaama's cooperation "to lead to the arrest of additional terrorists and the disruption of future terrorist activities."

A sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors Feb. 3 states, "security concerns" prohibit the government from telling the court the "full nature and scope of Ujaama's cooperation."

Despite the activities in Bly, Ujaama was never the primary target of the investigation. The probe has focused on Abu Hamza and other of his followers for their role in helping finance and set up the camp.

The various charges filed against Ujaama, including the felony to which he pleaded guilty, refer to an "unindicted co-conspirator" in London whom sources have identified as Abu Hamza.

Ujaama lived for several years in London, where he designed and operated a Web site for Abu Hamza called the Supporters of Shariah, the fundamentalist Islamic law preached by the Taliban. That Web site promoted violent Jihad against the United States and solicited aid for the Taliban government.

Ujaama also can be seen sitting alongside Abu Hamza on a series of vitriolic videotapes obtained by The Seattle Times. On the tapes, Ujaama defends bin Laden, praises the Taliban and reminds his audience that Christians and Jews "are our enemies." Abu Hamza, with Ujaama looking on, talks of killing Jews and Westerners.

Ujaama's attorneys and supporters have framed his visit to Afghanistan as a "humanitarian" trip to give computers to a girls school. But charging papers provide additional motives.

"It was also part of the conspiracy that members of the conspiracy, including Ujaama, provided and attempted to provide funds, goods and services to the Taliban including Jihad fighters, currency, computers, software, computer disks and other items," the papers state.

On that trip, Ujaama was accompanied — at Abu Hamza's direction — by a young Briton identified by federal law-enforcement sources as Feroz Abassi. Abassi has been identified by several sources as the unnamed, unindicted co-conspirator in the complaint who desired "to undergo violent Jihad training."

Abassi was captured fighting U.S. troops in the battle at bin Laden's stronghold in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He is being held as an enemy combatant at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

According to the charges, Ujaama attempted to enter Afghanistan a second time with money and computers for the Taliban in the days immediately after Sept. 11 but was turned away "because of the local response to the attacks."

The plea agreement prohibits Ujaama from discussing his activities and information he has provided to the government for up to 10 years after his release.

Ujaama's two-year sentence is a significant departure from sentences handed out to others arrested on similar charges. In Portland, six Muslim men who tried to enter Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban received sentences ranging from seven to 18 years in prison.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com

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