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Seattle Mosque Members Under Federal Investigation
SEATTLE - A federal grand jury is investigating a group affiliated with a now-defunct local mosque for possible ties to the al-Qaida terror network, the attorney for a former mosque member confirmed Friday. "The grand jury is looking into a lot of things related to people of this faith who have been associated with the mosque," said Robert Leen, attorney for Semi Osman, 32, of Tacoma, who is charged with trying to fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship and owning a semiautomatic handgun with the serial number removed. The Sierra Leone-born Osman, who holds a British overseas passport and has lived in the United States since the late 1980s, formerly attended the Dar-us-Salaam mosque near downtown Seattle. The mosque closed after being damaged in an earthquake in February 2001. Members of that mosque and another that opened nearby after the earthquake have been under investigation, Leen said. The Seattle Times reported Friday that members of the group have ties to Egyptian-born Abu Hamza Al-Masri, a suspected al-Qaida recruiter who runs the Finsbury Park mosque in north London and is wanted in Yemen on terrorism charges. Al-Masri told The Associated Press following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., that it would be a blessing if God destroyed the United States. Representatives of the Seattle FBI office and U.S. attorney's office would not confirm that a grand jury was investigating the mosque. However, Leen said federal investigators probing mosque members' suspected al-Qaida ties have been "very interested to speak to Mr. Osman," but Osman has refused to cooperate.
"The charges against him are not terror-related," Leen said. Osman is not a terrorist, he said, although, "it's true he was a member of a mosque where it's clear there were some things going on that probably bear some investigation." Leen would not comment further. Meanwhile, Seattle Police spokeswoman Deanna Nollette said Friday that several people at the Dar-us-Salaam mosque told officers investigating a 1998 assault that a large number of weapons had been stored inside the building. Nollette declined to give details on the incident report or any follow-up investigation, referring all further questions to the FBI, which declined comment. Osman was arrested on the citizenship charge in May, following allegations that he had entered into a sham marriage in the early 1990s to gain citizenship. Besides the handgun, investigators serving a search warrant found a visa application for the country of Yemen in Osman's home, as well as a passport from the "Republique Libanaise," or Lebanon. The passport, issued in 1981, bears a photo of Osman as a child but is issued in the name of Sami Samir El-Kassem, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Osman was scheduled to go to trial Aug. 12 before U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly in Seattle. News of the investigation came amid other reports that some FBI agents are working closely with federal Treasury agents to conduct a more specialized search for U.S. residents who might be working in an advisory capacity to al-Qaida terror cells. The Associated Press reported Thursday that some intelligence officials estimate there may be as many as 5,000 people in the United States with some sort of connection to al-Qaida. That number, larger than other estimates, includes all those in the "realm of suspicion" and those who may know of terrorist activities but not participate in them, one official told the AP on condition of anonymity. The Times reported that investigators in Seattle have identified a half-dozen core members of the suspected terror group but have gathered information on more than 100 others who had dealings with the Dar-us-Salaam mosque. In addition, The Times said federal investigators believe the Seattle group may have scouted a ranch near Bly in southeast Oregon in the fall of 1999 as a possible site for a terrorist training camp. About 15 members of the group visited the southern Oregon ranch that year for target practice, sources told the newspaper. And two men from the Abu Hamza mosque later made a separate visit there. Klamath County, Ore., Sheriff Tim Evinger told the AP Friday that federal agents briefed local investigators about the ranch in 1999, before he was elected to office, but he could not say whether they had visited the property. Evinger described the property as a 50-acre "gentleman's ranch," currently occupied by people renting from the owner, whom he would not identify. Bly is a remote high-desert town with an elementary school, U.S. Forest Service ranger station, a few stores, a cafe and little else. |
