http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/23/binladen.internet/index.html

Brief Quote:

Authorities also are investigating information from detainees that suggests al Qaeda members -- and possibly even bin Laden -- are hiding messages inside photographic files on pornographic Web sites.

With so much of the internet traffic being soft core pornography, that is where one would hide a message. A few bits changed in the the image would never be noticed.

This is not anything new really, but there has been alot of computer types working on it recently.

Al Qaeda members don't kill and tell. "By claiming credit, we were told that the group will earn the wrath of the target state. Everyone knows that we were behind it and responsible for that action. Why claim credit and become identified and then hunted down?" (Gunaratna, Inside Al Qaeda p. 35)

Al Qaeda is very entrenched in the Philipines and their operative Ramzi Yousef ,who bombed the WTC in 1993, also infiltrated the kidnapping ASG-Abu Sayyef Group and planed to kill Clinton, Ramos, the Pope, others and bomb 11 American passenger planes. Killing the Pope was to divert attention from the real goal of simultaneously blowing up the 11 planes as they crossed the Pacific.

Ramzi fled after he started a chemical fire in his Philippines apartment. It took the FBI months to get the information off his computer because he had such sophisticated encryption. A real evil genius.

When we finally extradited him after he fled the Philippines to Pakistan, Al Qaeda killed four Americans in Pakistan to retaliate. ASG is always kidnapping and killing Americans.

Interestingly, there is a bank called SBTC in the Philippines.

Security Bank Corporation, SBTC Building, 6776 Ayala Avenue, Makati, Manila (tel: 888-7340; fax: 893-2563; e-mail: inquiry@securitybank.com.ph).


Do a search sbtc manila I think I mentioned this bank before.

Author of this article has a book called Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.

Volume 18 - Issue 20, Sep. 29 - Oct. 12, 2001
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
Terror Unlimited

On the history, organisation and modus operandi of Al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation founded and led by Osama bin Laden.

ROHAN GUNARATNA

SINCE the beginning of the contemporary wave of terrorism on July 22, 1968, the international counter-terrorist community has never seen an organisation like Al Qaeda. (On that day, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked a Tel Aviv-bound El Al flight to Algiers in the first aircraft hijacking by a Palestinian group.) With no historical precedent, Al Qaeda (The Base) has proved to be difficult to monitor, target and neutralise by employing the traditional tools of law enforcement.

International efforts made to target Al Qaeda after the simultaneous suicide bombing of two U.S. embassies in eastern Africa in October 1998 failed. Despite firing 75 cruise missiles into Afghanistan and then arresting its members worldwide, the bombing of USS Cole in October 2000 and the multiple bombing of U.S. targets inside continental U.S. in September 2001 could not be prevented.

This demonstrates the difficulty the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism will face in the fight against its first target - Al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda's unusual capacity to withstand sustained human losses and material wastage is attributed to its unique structure and ideology.

Five characteristics enhance both Al Qaeda's survivability and force multiplication. Al Qaeda is neither one single group nor a coalition of two dozen large, medium and small groups. It is a conglomerate of groups spread throughout the world, operating as a network. Its affiliates include the Egyptian Islamic Jehad (EIJ), Al Gammaya-al Islamia (IG: Islamic Group of Egypt), the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA), the Islamic Party of Turkestan (IPT: Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan), the Jaish-e-Mohammed of Kashmir (JM:Army of Mohommad), and the Abu Sayyaf Group of the Philippines (ASG). The constituent groups of the network have their own command, control and communication structures. But whenever there is the need, these groups interact or merge, ideologically, financially and operationally.

Al Qaeda provides leadership at both the international and national levels. Although Osama has identified the U.S. as its prime enemy, he is an internationalist. As such Osama is likely to target not only Western targets, but also regimes that identify with the West, from Israel to the Philippines. However, the leaders of the other groups that work with Osama also have crucial domestic agendas. For instance, while deputising for Osama, the Emir-General of Al Qaeda, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, also leads the EIJ in Egypt.

Al Qaeda's broad ideological disposition advocates pan-Islam and not pan-Arabism. As a result, Osama's ideology cuts across divisions and appeals to both West Asian and non-West Asian groups, including Asian Islamic groups. His thinking in this direction was greatly influenced both by Abdullah Azzam, his Palestinian mentor, and by Hasan Turabi, the spiritual leader of Sudan.

Al Qaeda has a global reach. It manages support infrastructure in the West Asia and the rest of Asia, Europe and North America. Its network of support cells engages in disseminating propaganda, raising funds, recruiting members/enlisting helpers, gathering intelligence, procuring weapons and dual technologies, organising training, arranging safehouses and vehicles and forging or adapting identification. While it manages permanent operational infrastructure in West Asia and Central, South and Southeast Asia, the Balkans, the Caucasus and sub-Saharan Africa, Al Qaeda has a tremendous capacity to establish as well as regenerate operational cells elsewhere, especially in the West. Its operational cells train, mount reconnaissance or surveillance and conduct attacks.

Al Qaeda's forces are integrated into the Taliban. Taliban forces - effectively the Afghan Army plus foreign fighters - are currently fighting the United Front (formerly the Northern Alliance). In addition to gaining battle experience, Al Qaeda benefits materially from a state sponsor. Al Qaeda combat tacticians, explosives experts and other specialists act as trainers and advisers and actively participate in jehad campaigns (holy wars) from Chechnya to Kashmir and Mindanao. Interaction with the Taliban, state sponsors of these campaigns, and the guerilla and terrorist groups engaged in the forward-line fighting has enriched Al Qaeda's understanding and experience of a wide spectrum of warfare.

The founder leader of Al Qaeda is Osama bin Laden alias Osama Muhammad al Wahad alias Abu Abdallah alias Al Qaqa. Born in 1957, Osama is the son of Muhammed bin Awdah bin Laden of Southern Yemen. With Communism making inroads into Yemen, the bin Laden family moved to Saudi Arabia, where Osama's father distinguished himself as a construction magnate. After Osama's father bin Laden renovated the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the bin Laden family came to be highly respected both by the Saudi royalty and by the public. They were the richest non-royalty in Saudi Arabia.

AVENTURIER PATRICK/ GAMMA
At a bookshop in Quetta, Pakistan, a poster of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda's network of support cells engages in disseminating propaganda, recruiting members and raising funds, among other things.

As a student at Jeddah university, Osama's worldview was shaped by Dr. Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian of Jordanian origin and an influential figure in the Muslim Brotherhood. After graduating at Jeddah University, Osama assisted his father for a while. During this period he became a deeply religious individual.

Osama's exact date of arrival in Pakistan or Afghanistan remains disputed but some Western intelligence agencies place the date in the early 1980s. His early mentors were Azzam, today regarded as the historical leader of the Palestinian Hamas, and Prince Turki ibn Faisal ibn Abdelaziz, Chief of Security of Saudi Arabia, who was dismissed in early September 2001. Subsequently, Dr. Ayman Zawahiri, indicted for assassinating Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, started to fulfil the role, but of religious mentoring.

Between 1982-1984, Azzam founded the Maktab al Khidimat il Mujahideen al Arab (Mak), known commonly as the Afghan Bureau, Office Bureau or Service Bureau. As Mak's principal financier, Osama was considered the deputy to Azzam, the emir of Mak. At the height of the foreign, Arab and Muslim influx into Pakistan-Afghanistan from 1984 to 1986, Osama spent most of his time travelling and raising funds in the Arab world.

In addition to recruiting, and ideologically and physically training several thousand Arab and Muslim youth from the U.S. to the Philippines to fight the Soviets, Mak channelled several billion dollars of Western governmental, financial and material resources for the Afghan jehad. Furthermore, Mak worked closely with Pakistan especially the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's formidable military intelligence organisation; the wealthy Saudi government and its philanthropists; the Egyptian government, the leader of the Arab world; and the vast Muslim Brotherhood network in the Arab world.

The ISI was the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) conduit for arms transfers and the source of training for the Afghan and foreign Mujahideen. The CIA configured special weapons and provided state-of-the-art technologies, including Stinger missiles and satellite imagery, to the mujahideen. Both the fighting and the relief efforts were assisted by two banks - Dar al Mal al Islami, founded by Turki's brother Prince Mohammad Faisal in 1981, and Dalla al Baraka, founded by King Fahd's brother-in-law in 1982.

The two banks channelled funds to 20 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the most famous of which was the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO). The IIRO and the Islamic Relief Agency functioned under the umbrella of the World Islamic League led by Mufti Abdul Aziz Bin Baz. In addition to benefiting from the vast resources and expertise of governments channelled through domestic and foreign sources, Mak developed an independent global reach. Several mosques and charities, including the Kiffah refugee centre in Brooklyn and its mosque, served as Mak outreach offices in the U.S.

Osama's relationship with Azzam suffered towards the end of the anti-Soviet Afghan campaign. The dispute was over Azzam's support for Ahmed Shah Masood, the recently-assassinated leader of the Russian-backed United Front fighting the Taliban. Osama always preferred Hekmatiyar, who was both anti-Communist and anti-West. During the anti-Soviet campaign, when Hekmatiyar visited the U.N. in New York, the Afghan Mujahid spurned an invitation to meet the U.S. President. However, Osama never openly expressed any hatred towards the U.S. when living in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

When the Soviets decided to withdraw from Afghanistan, Osama decided to form his own group for the purpose of making a Khalifa or uniting the whole Muslim world into a single entity. Osama wanted to establish Islamic states where there were un-Islamic rulers in power. Despite the differences, Azzam and Osama worked together until Azzam was mysteriously assassinated in September 1989. Although the Soviet troops withdrew that year, the Soviets installed Najibullah, a pro-Communist leader in Kabul. As such, Mak continued to strengthen the organisation to fight both the Najibullah regime and channel resources to other international campaigns where Muslims were perceived as victims. In addition to benefiting from Mak's pan-Islamic (as opposed to pan-Arab) ideology, Al Qaeda drew from the vast financial resources and technical expertise mobilised during the decade-long anti-Soviet campaign.

At the end of the anti-Soviet campaign Osama returned to Saudi Arabia. He helped Saudi Arabia to create the first jehad group in South Yemen under the leadership of Tariq al Fadli. After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. became involved in the Persian Gulf War. At the request of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. based its troops in Saudi Arabia. A disturbed Osama, who did not want armed non-Muslims on the land of the two holy mosques, expressed his displeasure to Prince Turki. The failure of the Saudi royalty to honour the pledge to withdraw foreign troops as soon as the Iraqi threat diminished led Osama to initiate a campaign against the Saudi rulers. In Osama's eyes they were "infidels". He claimed that the Saudi rulers were false Muslims and said it was necessary to install a true Islamic state in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Saudi regime deported Osama in 1992 and revoked his citizenship in 1994.

Meanwhile, the National Islamic Front led by Hasan al Turabi, which came to power in Sudan, sent a delegation to Pakistan. Osama had moved his infrastructure of well-trained and experienced fighters from Pakistan to Sudan beginning in 1989. What his father did in Saudi Arabia, Osama wanted to do in Sudan. He established about 30 companies in Sudan, ranging from high-tech labs engaged in genetic research to those involved in the construction of a road from Khartoum to Port Sudan. He remained in Sudan until international pressure forced him to return to Afghanistan in 1996.

EVERY terrorist leader has a distinct psyche that determines his target selection and distinguishes his method of operation. Osama's most recent targets were the U.S. embassies in East Africa (1998); the destroyer U.S.S Cole in Yemen (2000); the World Trade Centre (WTC), the Pentagon and the Congress/White House in the U.S. (2001). They were all high-profile targets - for instance, WTC symbolised America's economic pride, the Pentagon its military might, and the Congress/White House its political power. The East Africa bombings killed 225 people and injured about 4,000; the bombing of USS Cole killed 17 and wounded 42; and the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon killed nearly 6,000 people.

Osama has no compunction against killing large numbers. He is one of the few terrorist leaders who have actively attempted to procure precursors to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. As long as his support and operational network remains intact, he is likely to target population centres in the West, employing conventional and unconventional weapons.

Osama's desire to strike high-profile as well as mass-casualty targets is reflected in all the attacks. In addition to Al Qaeda attacks becoming more lethal incrementally, they also became more innovative and daring. For instance, the first was a land suicide attack, the second a sea-borne suicide attack, and the third an air-borne suicide attack. Although the tactic in all cases was suicide, where the terrorist kills and dies, the medium of operation changed from land to sea and then to air.

Since the beginning of the contemporary wave of terrorism in 1968, it is the first time a terrorist group has successfully conducted an airborne suicide operation in the West (Western Europe and North America); the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) unsuccessfully planned to crash an Air France aircraft on to the Eiffel tower on Christmas Day in 1994.

Another characteristic of Osama is his ability to absorb ideas and operationalise them. The idea of airborne suicide operations grew from a plan conceived by the Oxford and Swansea (Wales)-educated Ramzi Ahmed Yusuf in the Philippines and another Al Qaeda pilot to crash-dive a plane full of chemicals on to the Pentagon in 1994. An accidental fire in Manila disrupted Yusuf's plans, which included the simultaneous bombing of 11 planes over the Pacific and the assassination of the visiting U.S. President Bill Clinton and the Pope. After testing one of the bombs over an aircraft flying over Japan, he fled to Pakistan where he was arrested in one of Osama's safehouses. Although Yusuf is serving a jail term in the U.S. for bombing the WTC in 1993, Osama operationalised Yusuf's plan.

It is also in Osama's psyche to conduct multiple attacks. For instance, when he attacked the U.S. diplomatic targets in East Africa, both the embassies were bombed almost at the same time. Similarly, the attacks in the U.S. were coordinated. The three targets were to be taken within an hour to deny his enemies the lead time to thwart the attacks as well as to shock them. He was able to do so by meticulous planning, thorough preparation and proper attention to detail, all qualities of a professional terrorist. Furthermore, he is patient, cunning and deceptive. The planning and preparations to attack the U.S. embassies in East Africa lasted five years.

Osama also invests significantly in psychological indoctrination, training, reconnaissance, rehearsals, and dry runs. Additionally, he has the capacity to plan several operations simultaneously. For instance, the flying training for the U.S. operation, lasting over one year, began in the U.S. in July 2000. While this training was on, he planned, prepared and executed the suicide bombing of U.S.S Cole. Undoubtedly, he has at least another operation planned, in the preparatory phase, waiting to be executed.

THE most striking feature of Al Qaeda is its vertical and horizontal integration. Vertically, the core and the penultimate leadership comprise Osama, other group leaders, their advisers, planners and trainers. Horizontally, the flat network of compartmentalised cells replicates each day. In addition to these terrorist cells, the bulk of the Al Qaeda forces - designated the V 55 Brigade of the Taliban - fight against the United Front. As such Al Qaeda can engage its opponents both in terrorist (urban/rural) and in semi-conventional warfare. During the last decade, Al Qaeda has grown in strength to about 5,000 men. It has its base and training camps in Khost, Mahavia, Kabul, Jalalabad, Kunar and Kandahar, and depots in Tora Bora and Liza. The continuous process of ideological indoctrination, recruitment and training leads to an expansion of the cellular units as well as the military formations. As Al Qaeda markedly differs from other terrorist groups, the counter-terrorist community has to develop a totally new concept and strategy to challenge this organisation.

Central to neutralising Al Qaeda would be to target the core and the penultimate leadership, the military formation in Afghanistan and its international cellular network. As the V 55 Brigade is integrated with the Taliban forces, the U.S.-led coalition will have no option but to attack the Taliban. Only the ability to develop high-grade intelligence will enable the coalition forces to target the core and penultimate leadership. As a professional who has fought the Soviet military for a decade and the Western intelligence services for another decade, Osama is likely to evade technical surveillance. The only method of targeting the Al Qaeda leadership is by the sustained recruitment of existing members and infiltrating new members who would act as agents for providing sound, timely and usable intelligence to the coalition forces.

Failure to develop ground intelligence, either directly or indirectly through foreign intelligence agencies, will mean the coalition forces fighting Al Qaeda in the dark. Pakistan's security and intelligence services, notably the ISI, have the best intelligence on Central Asia, followed by the Russian security services.

Al Qaeda's capability to operate a robust international network amid high threat demonstrates the difficulty in detecting and disrupting its international support and operational networks. Despite Al Qaeda being on top of the list of Western security and intelligence agencies, its members trained to fly both in the United Kingdom and in the U.S. for one year before the September 11 attack on the U.S. As Al Qaeda assigns high priority to protecting the organisation as well as its operations, penetrating it will be difficult. Nonetheless, by persistent and sustained application of resources at all levels, the Al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan and its organisational infrastructure worldwide can be disrupted, degraded and destroyed.

The multiple attacks on the U.S. crossed the self-imposed threshold set by terrorist groups and their sponsors. As terrorists tend to compete with, and often out do the others, the attack will set a dangerous precedent for other groups. Therefore, U.S. action against Al Qaeda will determine whether terrorist groups in the future are going to conduct such mass casualty attacks.

Dr. Rohan Gunaratna is Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, Scotland, U.K. He wrote the cover story on Al Qaeda in the August issue of Jane's Intelligence Review, U.K's leading journal on intelligence.

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 - A Seattle man suspected of ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network underwent a swift and secret federal hearing in Denver on Tuesday after police swarmed his aunt's house and arrested him Monday night.

James Ujaama, 36, gave himself up to FBI agents and Denver police who surrounded the house in the 2800 block of Dexter Street with guns drawn. He was arrested on a federal warrant as a material witness in an investigation into an alleged al-Qaeda cell in Seattle.

Video: Relatives shocked by arrest

According to the Seattle Times, the FBI is investigating Ujaama's connections to London cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who had strong ties to Osama bin Laden. Federal agents suspect Ujaama may have helped members of Hamza's mosque scout out a Bly, Ore., property as a possible terrorist training camp.

Hamza's London congregation has included shoe-bomber suspect Richard Reid and the alleged 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. Hamza told the Seattle Times on Tuesday that Ujaama ran the London mosque's website until about a year and a half ago, "when he disappeared."

In Denver, relatives said federal investigators told them they believe Ujaama also provided Afghanistan's Taliban leaders with computers when he visited there in December.

On Friday, after reports circulated of his impending arrest, Ujaama issued a statement to the Seattle media denying that he or his brother, Mustafa, 34, was involved in terrorism.

"My brother and I are not terrorists, and we should not have been charged in the media and harassed," he wrote. "We are prepared to challenge the government's charges in a court of law and order, in a fair and impartial hearing."

On Tuesday, Mustafa Ujaama stood outside the home where his brother was arrested and also denied involvement. "No, man," he said. "Why do you ask me that? That's a bad question. I'm an American citizen, I'm a veteran." He said he served in the Army for eight years, including a stint in the Persian Gulf War. He was not detained.

At the northeast Denver home Tuesday, relatives said federal investigators have been quizzing them for a month about the Ujaama brothers, who were born in Denver and lived here for about two years before moving to Seattle.

James Ujaama was arrested at the home of his aunt, Carola Webb, the ex-wife of Mayor Wellington Webb's son.

Mayoral spokesman Andrew Hudson said there was no connection between Webb and the Ujaamas. "The mayor and Mrs. Webb don't even recall meeting" James Ujaama, Hudson said.

Ujaama's cousin, Billy Frazier of Denver, said James Ujaama arrived in Denver at the beginning of the summer. Other family members said Ujaama had previously lived in London, where he has a wife and child, but arrived here from Seattle.

Family members said Ujaama was a devout Muslim who also was harshly critical of the U.S. government on issues ranging from racial profiling to sanctions against Iraq.

Ujaama's real passion wasn't for business, said aunt Diane Jones, but for religion, "almost to the point of being a fanatic." On his occasional visits to Denver, Ujaama marked up Bibles, pointing out what he called errors. He wanted his family to convert to Islam.

Jones said Ujaama has several creditors on his trail and that he owes money to his own family. The last time he visited, he made several expensive long-distance calls to Africa and didn't pay for them, she said.

"Jimmy left us a lot of bills," she said.

Jones said that Ujaama has a 7-year-old son from a previous marriage in Seattle but that the courts have refused to award him custody of the boy.

Another aunt, Diedre Badu, said she believes Ujaama was just a businessman plying his trade when he gave the Taliban computers.

"My nephew is an entrepreneur," she said. "If that means selling computers to people where he was (in Afghanistan), that's what it means."

"There is no way he could funnel computers to Osama," she said. "He can barely funnel computers to himself."

A third aunt, Robin Sherrod, said the Oregon camp wasn't used to train terrorists but to teach proper Islamic practices, such as food preparation.

"They learned how to butcher a goat," she said.

In his statement Friday, Ujaama devoted several pages to scathing criticism of the United States: "Here we are supposed to be the most civilized nation in the world behaving more like barbarians after blood simply because we have anger in our hearts and revenge on our minds," he wrote. Citing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he wrote, "Our foreign policy also makes it okay to sell drugs and ship arms to a country that engages in apartheid and racism."

Talib Syed, president of the Colorado Muslim Society, said he has not heard of the Ujaamas.

A Seattle grand jury is investigating the allegations of possible al-Qaeda links in the Seattle area. So far, only one indictment has been issued - against Tacoma auto mechanic Semi Osman. Osman, who faces immigration and gun charges, is a former leader of a now-defunct Seattle mosque attended by the Ujaamas.

On Tuesday, federal marshals blocked access to a hallway at Denver's federal courthouse as attorneys for Ujaama and the government met before U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer.

U.S. Attorney John Suthers argued the government's case but would not comment as he walked from the courthouse, citing federal rules.

Likewise, Shaffer would not say why the hearing had been closed. Ujaama, who had been held in Denver County jail overnight, was returned to the custody of U.S. marshals.

Ujaama's lawyer, Dan Sears, declined comment.

Colorado Director of Public Safety Sue Mencer said Denver FBI officials told her Tuesday that residents were in no immediate danger during the Ujaama investigation. But Mencer said FBI officials wouldn't discuss the investigation further.

Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter was on the scene for Ujaama's arrest but said he didn't know about the investigation until then.

Numerous other law enforcement officials in Seattle, Denver and Washington, D.C., declined to comment.

Note about our very own Al Qaeda training camp:Bly Oregon is in southern Oregon, near the border with California and not too far from Nevada.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/79740_ujaama24.shtml

Secrecy envelops Ujaama arrest
Seattle Muslim tells newspaper that he is not a terrorist

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY, CHRIS MCGANN AND SCOTT SUNDE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

The federal government tried to pull a curtain of secrecy yesterday over the detention of a Seattle man caught up in a terrorism investigation, but federal criminal justice sources said the man stands at the center of a plan to set up a terrorist-training camp in the Pacific Northwest.

Read the full, unedited text of the statement James Ujaama e-mailed to Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr.

James Ujaama, 36, as yet faces no criminal charges. Federal authorities -- from the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., to FBI field offices -- would not discuss Ujaama yesterday, would not confirm that he was in custody and would not explain why they couldn't speak about the case.

Ujaama's family alerted the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about his arrest Monday in Denver, where he was born and still has family. Jail records in Denver confirmed that Ujaama was booked Monday night, then turned over to the FBI yesterday afternoon.

In a jail interview with the Rocky Mountain News yesterday, Ujaama said he is no terrorist.

"I wasn't planning any terrorist attacks, I'll tell you that," he told the Denver newspaper. "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."

Criminal justice sources said Ujaama was being held on a federal material witness warrant. That warrant means investigators think Ujaama has crucial information but might flee. The warrant allows federal law enforcement to keep him in custody indefinitely.

Ujaama's mother, Peggi Thompson, said yesterday that an FBI agent told her that her son had gone before a federal magistrate yesterday and is to have a hearing Friday afternoon.

Dan Sears, a Denver lawyer who represents Ujaama, confirmed yesterday's hearing but said he could not comment further, noting that the court proceedings were under seal.

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Ujaama had already been moved to Virginia.

After court hearings, Ujaama could be returned to Seattle and held for FBI questioning at a federal detention center in SeaTac.

But Ujaama's brother Mustafa said yesterday that he also believed that James Ujaama had been sent to Virginia, where the federal government is prosecuting terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.

"I understand my brother, where he is coming from. He'll be all right," Mustafa Ujaama said.

Mustafa is drawing strength from his Islamic faith. "Whatever happens, happens," he said. He quoted the Quran: "God said, 'Your enemies are plotting, but I too am plotting.'"

Yesterday, federal criminal justice sources outlined the parameters of the investigation of James Ujaama, like his brother a convert to Islam. James Ujaama is a sometime resident of London, an author of three books and a well-regarded figure in Seattle's black community.

Sources said Ujaama, with the assistance of Semi Osman -- a religious leader of a now-closed Seattle mosque -- worked to set up the military training camp in Bly, Ore,. to harden recruits before they went to Afghanistan to fight.

But sources said two al-Qaida representatives from London came away disappointed after visiting Oregon. There were too few recruits to be trained at the Oregon ranch.

The al-Qaida representatives are associated with a London mosque whose leader, Sheik Abu Hamza al-Masri, has longtime links to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the sources said.

Members of the radical group, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, are believed to have assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Islamic Jihad founder Ayman al-Zawahiri is a chief adviser and doctor to Osama bin Laden, according to the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. He is No. 2 on the list after bin Laden, who, along with his al-Qaida organization, is blamed for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Ujaama also traveled to Afghanistan and provided the Taliban government with at least one laptop computer, criminal justice sources said.

Osman was arrested in May and now faces immigration and weapons charges. He has yet to be charged with any terrorist offenses.

A search of the Tacoma car mechanic's home turned up a computer containing information on municipal water treatment facilities and on poison, sources said.

Federal authorities suspect that Osman joined the U.S. Navy Reserves to infiltrate and obtain training that could later be used by radical Muslims.

"He was looking to infiltrate, to learn what's going on," said one federal criminal justice source.

Osman's attorney could not be reached for comment last night.

© 1998-2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Perhaps this guy is a member of Jamaat ul/al Fuqra? Members are recruited typically in black communities and in prisons. To do a search just type in "fuqra." Often they are career criminals.
They had a big group in Colorado, Virginia, Florida, I think. Have ties to Al Qaeda.

Jamaat ul-Fuqra
From: Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1999. United States Department of State, April 2000.

Comments on the content of the material should be sent to the U.S. Department of State

Description
Islamic sect that seeks to purify Islam through violence. Led by Pakistani cleric Shaykh Mubarik Ali Gilani, who established the organization in the early 1980s. Gilani now resides in Pakistan, but most cells are located in North America and the Caribbean. Members have purchased isolated rural compounds in North America to live communally, practice their faith, and insulate themselves from Western culture.

Activities
Fuqra members have attacked a variety of targets that they view as enemies of Islam, including Muslims they regard as heretics and Hindus. Attacks during the 1980s included assassinations and firebombings across the United States. Fuqra members in the United States have been convicted of crimes, including murder and fraud.

Strength
Unknown.

Location/Area of Operation
North America, Pakistan.

External Aid
None.

Good article detailing his ties.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134499196_terror24.html

Good article on his past

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134499123_ujaama24.html

but do those people over there have electricity? Let alone internet access. I suppose they must, but you sure don't see any "normal" buildings or electrical wires on TV footage of this piece of crap country.

Which piece of crap country do you mean?

Pakistan or Afghanistan? Or the 60 or so countries Al Qaeda operates in? England?
Germany? Spain? Canada? America? Philipines?
Singapore? Italy? AL Qaeda is EVERYWHERE.

Bin Laden had a satellite phone. They use cell phones. Their caves have generators. They are really sophisticated bunkers--not just caves.
They have lap tops, websites.

LOOK again. Pakistan has some very developed and very undeveloped areas.

Read the book "Inside Al Qaeda" by Rohan Gunaratna. They are very smart. Cumputers,banks, businesses, oil money.

Do not underestimate them.

Pakistan Communications Top of Page
Telephones - main lines in use: 2.861 million (March 1999)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 158,000 (1998)
Telephone system: general assessment: the domestic system is mediocre, but improving; service is adequate for government and business use, in part because major businesses have established their own private systems; since 1988, the government has promoted investment in the national telecommunications system on a priority basis, significantly increasing network capacity; despite major improvements in trunk and urban systems, telecommunication services are still not readily available to the majority of the rural population

domestic: microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, cellular, and satellite networks

international: satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean); 3 operational international gateway exchanges (1 at Karachi and 2 at Islamabad); microwave radio relay to neighboring countries (1999)

Note cells/members in Denver, Colorado Springs, Los Angeles California, Fresno County, New York City, Philadelphia

Feb. 3, 2002
Investigators unsure if Pearl is alive
Top suspect in abduction of reporter claims thousands of followers in the United States.

By Michael J. Dorgan
Knight Ridder

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A key investigator in the kidnapping case of American journalist Daniel Pearl said late Saturday night that police have strong leads on Pearl’s whereabouts, but are not certain whether he is dead or alive.

An e-mail sent Friday purportedly by his abductors said the 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter had been killed and his body dumped in a Karachi graveyard because the kidnappers’ demands had not been met. But police searched more than 400 graveyards in and around the southern port and found nothing, causing them to conclude that the e-mail either had not come from the kidnappers or that they for some reason had lied.

A telephone call to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad Friday demanding a $2 million ransom for Pearl and setting a 36-hour deadline for payment also proved to be bogus.

The caller was traced and arrested Saturday in Islamabad, and police are convinced that the man was not involved in the kidnapping, the investigator said.

In another significant development, the chief suspect in Pearl’s abduction may be extradited to the United States within 48 hours, according to an official in Pakistan’s Interior Ministry who spoke on condition he not be identified.

That suspect is Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani, the man Pearl reportedly hoped to meet when he disappeared Jan. 23 in Karachi.

Gilani is a militant Islamic cleric who police say has ties to both Osama bin Laden and so-called Shoe Bomber Richard Reid, the British national who allegedly tried to blow up an American Airlines flight with explosives hidden in his sneakers.

Police say Gilani, who heads an extremist group that allegedly has thousands of followers in the United States, operates a religious school in the Pakistan city of Lahore. Until recently, they say, he also ran several military training sites south of Lahore to prepare Islamic radicals for holy war in Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan and the United States.

Among those trained at Gilani’s school and camps in Pakistan since the mid-1980s have been dozens of African American Muslims, some of whom have gone on to fight on the side of Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to police.

The plump 60-year-old militant cleric, who has made frequent trips to the United States, was arrested Thursday in Rawalpindi, a city that borders on Islamabad.

Before being flown to Karachi for further questioning, he told police he financed many of his operations in Pakistan with money sent by his followers in the United States, according to one of the arresting officers.

The officer, speaking on condition he not be identified, said Gilani warned that hundreds of his followers in the United States would react violently to his arrest.

A Pakistan government official said U.S. documents presented in support of extradition said the militant Islamic group Gilani founded, Tanzeem ul Fuqra, operates the Quranic Open University in Los Angeles, which has branches in New York City and Philadelphia.

The documents cited reports claiming that Tanzeem ul Fuqra has training compounds in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California and perhaps other states.

No U.S. officials could be reached in Pakistan for comment late Saturday on the legal foundation they have laid for Gilani’s extradition, or what charges he could face in the United States.

But the Interior Ministry official said Pakistan is ready to hand Gilani over to the United States not because of his alleged role in Pearl’s kidnapping but because of the numerous crimes in the United States that have been linked to Tanzeem ul Fuqra since the mid 1980s.

In 1984, according to documents presented to Pakistan, Tanzeem ul Fuqra was linked to the firebombing of a Hare Krishna temple in Denver.

In the early 1990s, the documents said, several of the group’s members were arrested after police found 30-40 pounds of explosives, handguns, bomb-making instructions and manuals on such topics as flying airplanes and reading blueprints in a storage locker in Colorado Springs.

More recently, a Tanzeem ul Fuqra member was arrested for the murder last August of a Fresno County Deputy Sheriff in California, according to the extradition documents.

The chief suspect in U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl's abduction heads a militant Islamic group that might have training compounds in South Carolina and other states, said an official in Pakistan's Interior Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He might be extradited to the United States within 48 hours, the official said.

That suspect is Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani, the man Pearl reportedly hoped to meet when he disappeared Jan. 23 in Karachi.

Gilani is a militant Islamic cleric who police say has ties to both Osama bin Laden and so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid, the British national who allegedly tried to blow up an American Airlines flight with explosives hidden in his sneakers.

Police say Gilani, who heads an extremist group that allegedly has thousands of followers in the United States, operates a religious school in the Pakistan city of Lahore. Until recently, they say, he also ran military training sites south of Lahore to prepare Islamic radicals for holy war in Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan and the United States.

The plump 60-year-old militant cleric, who has made frequent trips to the United States, was arrested Thursday in Rawalpindi, a city that borders on Islamabad.

Before being flown to Karachi for further questioning, he told police he financed many of his operations in Pakistan with money sent by his followers in the United States, one arresting officer said.

The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gilani warned that hundreds of his followers in the United States would react violently to his arrest.

A Pakistan government official said U.S. documents presented in support of extradition said the militant Islamic group Gilani founded, Tanzeem ul Fuqra, operates the Quranic Open University in Los Angeles, which has branches in New York City and Philadelphia.

The documents cited reports claiming that Tanzeem ul Fuqra has training compounds in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California and perhaps other states.

South Carolina's homeland- security director, Steve Siegfried, said Saturday night that he has no knowledge of any such terrorist training camp in South Carolina.

No U.S. officials could be reached in Pakistan for comment late Saturday on the legal foundation they have laid for Gilani's extradition, or what charges he could face in the United States.

But the Interior Ministry official said Pakistan is ready to hand Gilani over to the United States not because of his alleged role in Pearl's kidnapping but because of the numerous crimes in the United States that have been linked to Tanzeem ul Fuqra since the mid-1980s.

In 1984, according to documents presented to Pakistan, Tanzeem ul Fuqra was linked to the firebombing of a Hare Krishna temple in Denver.

In the early 1990s, the documents said, several of the group's members were arrested after police found 30-40 pounds of explosives, handguns, bomb-making instructions and manuals on such topics as flying airplanes and reading blueprints in a storage locker in Colorado Springs.

More recently, a Tanzeem ul Fuqra member was arrested for the murder last August of a Fresno County deputy sheriff in California, according to the extradition documents.

If a big Al Fuqra camp is located in the US, who should go in, FBI and cops or the US Army?

They are looking at giving the military some new functions within the country should it be needed in the event of an unusual situation.

The military is starting big training exercizes in Suffolk, Virginia (west of the Dismal Swamp) and not far from Virginia Beach and also out west--possibly San Diego but I forget.

If we find a fortified Al Fuqra/Al Qaeda town, what should be done?

Will probably look like a trailer park.

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Colorado Attorney General's Office successfully prosecuted members of a fundamentalist Sufi-militant Islamic sect known as "JAMAAT UL FUQRA". Five FUQRA members were ultimately prosecuted between 1993 and 1994.

"FUQRA" is an Arabic word, which translates most accurately as "the impoverished". The sect advocates the purification of the Islamic religion by means of force and violence. Sheikh Mubarik Ali Jilani Hasmi, who is known by many other aliases, and who also calls himself the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr, originated this group in Pakistan.

In addition to being suspected of committing numerous acts of domestic terrorism, FUQRA members in the United States have been suspected of committing fraud against various governmental entitlement programs in an effort to financially support their activities.

Colorado's investigation indicated that the United States FUQRA movement was composed of approximately 30 different 'Jamaats' or communities, somewhat mobile in nature. Most of these 'Jamaats' are believed to currently exist today, along with what investigators deemed to be several 'covert paramilitary training compounds' -- one of which had been located in a remote mountainous area near Buena Vista, Colorado prior to Colorado's prosecutions in the mid-1990s. The corresponding FUQRA 'Jamaat' to the Buena Vista compound was located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Colorado's investigation of FUQRA was initiated in 1989 when Colorado Springs Police Department detectives, initially investigating a series of burglaries, were contacted by the owner of a storage locker site and were told about a locker of, what appeared to be, abandoned property.

In September 1989, detectives executed a search warrant of the storage locker upon suspicion of illegal explosives. The search of the locker disclosed numerous items believed to belong to the FUQRA sect then residing in that area. Several explosive components-- thirty to forty pounds of explosives, three large pipe bombs, a number of smaller improvised explosive devices, shape charges, ten handguns-- some with obliterated serial numbers-- silencers in various stages of manufacture, military training manuals, reloading equipment, bomb-making instructions, and numerous FUQRA-related publications were located in this storage area. Titles of some of the publications included "Guerilla Warfare", "Counter Guerilla Operations", "Understanding Amateur Radio", and "Fair Weather Flying," and "Basic Blueprint Reading and Sketching." Several silhouettes for firearms target practice were also discovered, including one with the words "FBI Anti-terrorist team" written on the target's torso bullseye.

Of great interest to law enforcement officials were documents concerning potential 'targets' for destruction and murder in the Los Angeles, Tucson, and Denver areas, including surveillance-type photographs, maps with hand-drawn overlays, notes, etc., concerning these targets. In addition, references to Buckley Air National Guard Base, Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the Air Force Academy, and electrical facilities in Colorado, and Warren Air Force Base, and two Wyoming National Guard armories in Wyoming were found. A somewhat detailed description of a firebombing attack on what is believed to have been the Hare Krishna Temple in Denver was also discovered. An attack, as described in these writings, did, in fact, take place in Denver in August 1984, causing an estimated $200,000 in damage. Investigation by Denver authorities at that time revealed that a Hare Krishna Temple in Philadelphia, where FUQRA activity also had been noted, was firebombed in a similar fashion.

Among the many documents found in the Colorado Springs' storage locker were numerous blank birth certificates; blank social security cards; several sets of Colorado drivers' licenses, each containing a picture of the same individual, but each with a different identity; and many underground press publications concerning the assembly of phony identification -- to be reproduced in a manner to "withstand even close government scrutiny".

Finally, the search disclosed a number of workers' compensation claims, which ultimately led to a full-scale fraud investigation being conducted by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in coordination with the Colorado Attorney General's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorist Task Force.

This investigation revealed that Colorado Springs FUQRA members had defrauded the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment of approximately $350,000 dollars between September 1984 and January 1992. The mobility and multiple addresses and identities of the various FUQRA members posed a significant challenge to early detection and normal prevention of the fraud. As a result of the two-year investigation, five FUQRA members were indicted by the statewide grand jury in September 1992 on racketeering charges involving theft, mail fraud, and forgery. Six months after the indictments, further racketeering charges, including theft of rental property, conspiracy to commit murder and arson (the Denver Hare Krishna Temple), were also filed against the five individuals and a sixth person -- all FUQRA members. Some of the fraudulently obtained workers' compensation funds were traced directly to payments for a parcel of land near Buena Vista used by the group as a residence compound and training site.

One of the FUQRA defendants convicted is James D. Williams. After his conviction in 1993 for conspiracy to commit first degree murder, racketeering, and forgery, Williams fled and remained a fugitive until being apprehended in Virginia in August 2000. He was returned to Colorado and sentenced this past March to 69 years in prison. From at least the middle 1980's through 1990, Williams was a leader of a Colorado FUQRA.

The conviction for conspiracy to commit first degree murder referred to a comprehensive written plan for the murder of a Tucson, Arizona Muslim cleric, Rashad Khalifa. Khalifa was murdered in January 1990 in a manner that was remarkably similar to the written plan.

It is believed the activities of UL FUQRA across the nation continue. Just recently the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (BATF) arrested one of the former Colorado defendants and FUQRA member, Vincente Rafael Pierre, in Virginia on alleged ammunition violations. In California, a FUQRA member was arrested on the suspected murder of a Fresno County Deputy Sheriff this last August. In addition, FUQRA operates something called the Quranic Open University in Los Angeles, which has received over $1.5 million dollars over the course of the last two years in charter school funding. This entity is also located in New York City and Philadelphia. There are believed to be active UL FUQRA training compounds still existing in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California, and perhaps other states.

FUQRA or its members have been investigated for alleged terrorist acts including murder and arson in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles and Tucson. UL FUQRA is suspected of more than thirteen firebombings and, at least, as many murders within the United States.