Ujaama's credibility is key in terror case

NEW YORK — James Ujaama admitted he lied about everything and to nearly everyone as he tried to sell the idea of setting up a camp to train jihad fighters in Oregon in 1999. And then, after his arrest, he lied to the government, the courts, the media and his lawyers.

In the face of a blistering cross-examination Wednesday in a Manhattan federal courtroom, Ujaama, 43, testifying as a witness in the conspiracy trial of Oussama Kassir, a Swedish jihadist, was made to say the L-word again and again in recounting a life of petty and not-so-petty crime that ranged from passing bad checks in Seattle to Kabul, where he handed over cash to a front-line commander of the outlawed Taliban government.

Ujaama's credibility is crucial to the U.S. government's efforts to convict Kassir, who is accused of coming to the U.S. from London to help Ujaama train jihad soldiers to fight the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.

Ujaama is the key witness against Kassir, who once claimed to be a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and reportedly fought with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance.

Kassir faces 12 felony counts, including offering material support to terrorists, conspiring to kill foreigners and providing information about chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction. Most charges stem from incidents at the camp outside Bly, Ore., or for work on radical Islamic Web sites.

On the stand Wednesday, Ujaama acknowledged that, while other members of his Seattle mosque saw the 360-acre ranch outside Bly as a retreat for study and prayer, he saw it a "place to make a few bucks."

To do so, Ujaama admitted, he lied to nearly everybody involved.

Kassir's defense lawyer, Mark DeMarco, repeatedly went after Ujaama during his cross-examination.

"Do you consider yourself an honest man?" DeMarco asked.

"Yes, I do," Ujaama replied.

"Who is Jose Luis Ramirez-Ramirez?"

Ujaama explained that this was an identity he adopted in Mexico City, complete with a false passport, after fleeing the U.S. and violating his plea agreement in hopes of avoiding testifying in this, and perhaps two other trials.

"Is that the act of an honest man?" DeMarco asked.

"No, sir," Ujaama said.

It was a question Ujaama would have to answer over and over as DeMarco walked him through the credit-card scams, the falsified applications, the fenced laptops and the nine times he failed to appear in court on various charges while growing up in a Seattle community that saw him as an entrepreneur and leader.

DeMarco made Ujaama go into painful detail about how, after returning to Seattle from London in 1999 and visiting the Bly property, he encouraged members of a Central District mosque to believe he intended to set up a haven for Muslims to pray, study the Koran and prepare for a move to Afghanistan.

DeMarco likened it "selling time shares in an Islamic resort." Ujaama did not disagree.

What Ujaama was really doing was secretly scheming over how to lure the radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to the ranch as "a draw" for his vision of a for-profit training camp for would-be mujahedeen. He insisted, though, that the money would not be for him, personally, but to support the group.

"Abu Hamza was crucial to it, yes," he testified. "My belief was once we got Abu Hamza there, we would be able to attract a following."

To do so, Ujaama acknowledged, he had to mislead Abu Hamza into thinking things were further along than they were. In a fax to Abu Hamza, Ujaama boasted that he had a stockpile of weapons and ready recruits.

"You looked up to Abu Hamza ... you respected the man, is that fair?"

"Yes, sir," Ujaama said.

"And you lied to him," DeMarco said.

"Yes, I lied to him."

Even so, Ujaama returned to London in 2000, after the Bly experiment had failed, and would go on to work as publisher of a radical Islamic newsletter called "Al Jihad." Later, he would produce a Web site for Abu Hamza, which advocated violence against the U.S.

While the U.S. has focused on Kassir's violent past, DeMarco focused on Ujaama as the culprit who suggested the jihad camp.

Ujaama was arrested and later indicted in 2002. He pleaded guilty to providing aid in the form of computers, cash and fighters to the illegal Taliban government.

He agreed to testify against Kassir and others in exchange for a reduction in his sentence.

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