A suspect in the London bombings lived in a Central Seattle mosque in early 2000 after he had scouted out a possible terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore.

Haroon Aswat, 30, is believed by British police to have helped plan the July 7 attacks that killed 56 people and injured hundreds, according to London newspaper accounts and Newsweek's Web site.

Aswat had made as many as 20 cellphone calls to two of the bombers in the days leading up to the attack, including one just hours before the bombs went off, according to The Times of London.

Aswat was arrested by Pakistani authorities recently while carrying a belt packed with explosives, cash and a false ID, the Guardian reported.

However, Newsweek reported that Pakistan's information minister had denied that Aswat had been detained, and said U.S. law-enforcement authorities were uncertain whether he was in custody.

Aswat was described by an acquaintance as a thin, quiet man from the Asian subcontinent who frequently read the Quran. He impressed some of the Americans who met him as a fighter.

"He was fearless — he would charge a hundred men," Ali Shahid Abdul-Raheem, a Muslim convert who met Aswat in Seattle, said in 2002. He described Aswat as "a lion."

Aswat came to the Northwest in 1999 when James Ujaama, a former Seattle activist, tried to set up a jihad training camp in rural Oregon.

Ujaama was based in London, where he had become a follower of radical cleric Abu Hamza, an al-Qaida supporter.

Abu Hamza sent Aswat to the United States to check out Ujaama's plans, authorities said.

Aswat arrived with Oussama Kassir, a Swede of Lebanese descent with a lengthy arrest record. They were dismayed by conditions at the ranch, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to The Seattle Times.

On the night of their arrival, Ujaama did not even have a key to unlock the gate to the entry road, the eyewitnesses said. While everyone waited in the dark, he had to walk nearly a mile up the road to find a tenant who could open it.

Upon arriving, Aswat and Kassir were escorted to two cramped and dilapidated travel trailers, which lacked bathrooms or even running water. And during the next two weeks, they lived a hand-to-mouth existence, hunting rabbits and quail to help put food on the table.

At one point, Kassir suggested that they might even consider eating — if they got hungry enough — a few of the ranch dogs, a dish he told others at the ranch he'd sampled while a fighter battling the Soviets in Afghanistan, according to sources who were there at the time.

During that time, Aswat and Kassir "met potential candidates for jihad training, they established security for the Bly property through the use of guard patrols and passwords, and they and others participated in firearms training and viewed a video recording on the subject of improvised poisons," according to an indictment of Ujaama.

Ujaama was indicted by federal authorities in Seattle in 2002 for offering support to the Taliban. He later cooperated with government authorities to build their case against Abu Hamza. Because of his cooperation, he was sentenced to only 24 months.

Aswat was unindicted co-conspirator No. 3 listed in the Ujaama indictment, federal sources said. The FBI had thought Aswat was killed fighting in the war in Afghanistan.

Kassir eventually became so upset by a plan Ujaama proposed to personally profit from the camp that Kassir told others he was going to kill Ujaama and bury him on the property, according to an eyewitness. However, someone talked Kassir out of it.

In a 2002 interview, Kassir — who authorities said boasted about being a "hit man" for Osama bin Laden — wouldn't confirm going to Oregon but told The Seattle Times, "I love al-Qaida. I love Osama bin Laden."

After leaving the Bly ranch, Aswat lived in Seattle for a month or two in early 2000 in a now-defunct storefront mosque in Central Seattle called Dar-us-Salaam.

In 2000, Dar-us-Salaam was damaged in an earthquake and shut down.

Abu Hamza faces terrorism-related charges from Ujaama's scheme. He is on trial in London on British charges that include solicitation of murder. The United States wants to extradite him if he is acquitted there.

Ujaama could not be reached last night for comment. His brother, Mustafa Ujaama, said his brother had a "long few years" and has tried to put his life back together since being released from prison in spring 2004.

Mustafa said he did not know anything about Aswat and recent accounts of his supposed ties to the London bombings.

The new international terrorism connection to Bly revives memories of a troubled time for Perry Thompson, a retired carpet layer who visited the ranch several times in the fall of 1999.

"I'm surprised to see it back in the news," Thompson said. "It's hard to think now of what might have happened."