Hamza accused of trying to set up terrorist cell (IN AMERICA)

Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, the imam of Finsbury Park mosque, stands accused in the United States of attempting to establish a terrorist cell there to "engage in violent global jihad".

Hamza, 45, is the key figure in a federal grand jury investigation in Seattle which accuses him of being a terrorist recruiter and names one of his followers as an al-Qa'eda agent in the US.

James Ujaama, a black Muslim activist, faces trial later this year on charges of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon.

Hamza is not named on the indictment against Ujaama but US sources told The Telegraph that the radical cleric is the person referred to in the document as "unindicted co-conspirator 1".

Ujaama, 36, spent more than a year in London running Hamza's website and was a leading activist at Finsbury Park mosque. The mosque remained under police control last night after being taken over in an anti-terrorist raid on Monday.

Seven men arrested during the operation are still being questioned and a number are believed to be linked to the discovery of traces of the toxin ricin in Wood Green, north London, earlier this month.

One of those being held is regarded as being the "logistician" behind the alleged ricin cell - in charge of financing and equipment.

Hamza has not been questioned in connection with the raid on the mosque or the discovery of ricin. But the US authorities have named him as a terror suspect. His assets were frozen last year and the US Treasury said he was "linked to al-Qa'eda and Osama bin Laden".

The Seattle indictment alleges Ujaama "pledged and maintained bayaat" (allegiance) to Hamza and advocated his beliefs "concerning the need to engage in violent jihad through armed acts of aggression against Western governments". The document alleges Ujaama and Hamza conspired "to arrange and conduct training in firearms, military and guerrilla tactics".

This training was to be undertaken at a ranch in Bly to be purchased by Ujaama after Hamza and his associates had inspected it. Ujaama is said to have attended al-Qa'eda camps in Afghanistan sponsored by Hamza.

In 1999 Ujaama allegedly faxed Hamza from the US comparing the ranch to the terrain in Afghanistan and saying it could be used as a place to hide weaponry and as a safehouse.

Ujaama travelled from London to Afghanistan with computers and is said to have escorted Feroz Abbasi, from south London, to a Taliban camp. US prosecutors are seeking permission to call Abbasi - who is being held at Guantanamo Bay - as a witness against Ujaama.

Hamza admits knowing Ujaama but denied being involved with him in any terrorist conspiracy. Ujaama has denied the charges.

Abu Hamza, (aka Abu Hamza al-Masri) London cleric He was born in Egypt and is wanted in Yemen on terrorism charges. The U.S. Treasury Department has frozen his assets in this country. Hamza's London mosque had been visited by Zacarias Moussaoui, who was charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, and by others with terrorist connections. - Ranch's efforts at terror training detailed- Muslim who lived at Oregon site tells , by CHRIS McGANN, DAIKHA DRIDI AND SAM SKOLNIK, August 9, 2002 , Seattle Post Intelligencer

Abu Hamza : worked in London with Semi Osman to set up a web site for a British company, Sakina Security Services, that courted clients for what it called the Ultimate Jihad Challenge. That company has been charged by the British government with seeking to "assist or prepare for" terrorism, and its trial is under way in London. U.S. investigators are probing for links between Sakina and the aborted plan for a jihad camp in Oregon. Abu Hamza, who lost both hands and one eye in Afghanistan, has been under investigation for his connections to Islamic terrorism. He has praised the Sept. 11 attacks, saying recently that Muslims who did not support them "are hypocrites on the Muslim nation."

Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Abu Hamza a global terrorist and froze his assets. The department alleges that Abu Hamza was an officer in the Islamic Army of Aden, the terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors.

Yemen accuses Abu Hamza of sending 10 men from Britain, including his son and a stepson, to attack British and American targets in Aden. The group kidnapped 16 Western tourists, including two Americans, in December 1998. Four of the hostages died during a rescue.

Abu Hamza has been charged in Yemen for that crime, but Britain does not have an extradition agreement with the Middle Eastern nation.

The cleric has long been suspected of recruiting for al-Qaida. He denies that but openly supports bin Laden and publishes incendiary speeches on the Web site set up by Ujaama.

In an interview with Canadian television, he said, "Everybody was happy when the planes hit the World Trade Center. Anybody who tells you that they are not happy, they are hypocrites on the Muslim nation, I am telling you, everybody."

Abu Hamza was arrested in Britain more than two years ago, but no charges were filed. U.S. authorities are frustrated that he hasn't been charged there.

That company has been charged by the British government with seeking to "assist or prepare for" terrorism, and its trial is under way in London. U.S. investigators are probing for links between Sakina and the aborted plan for a jihad camp in Oregon.

Here is a lengthy but important document which should be read by all!

Jihadis in the Hood
Race, Urban Islam and the War on Terror

JIHAD IN AMERICA:

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