What are we to make of James Ujaama, the Seattle man charged with providing material support to Al Qaeda who was denied bail this week? The New York Times calls him a "riddle" and asks whether he is a terrorist or a hustler.

"Unlike John Walker Lindh or the men arrested near Buffalo, Mr. Ujaama has support from a cross-section of prominent people here. "I can't see anything in his past that would indicate he would ever be involved with violent terrorists," said Eddie Rye Jr., regional vice president of the Black Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Rye has known Mr. Ujaama for more than 20 years. Like other longtime acquaintances, Mr. Rye suggests the activities that the government says are part of a plot can by explained by Mr. Ujaama's lifetime of making deals."

"James Ujaama first and foremost is an entrepreneur," Mr. Rye said. "He had prepared himself since an early age for success."

"As a child, Mr. Ujaama worked at food banks and social service centers in Seattle, helping his mother, Peggy Thompson. As a young man, he established a computer business, sold pamphlets encouraging young blacks to stay off drugs and succeed through the American dream, and was a motivational speaker. A state legislator, Jesse Wineberry, once issued a citation declaring a statewide day of recognition for Mr. Ujaama."

In denying bail for Mr. Ujaama this week, the Judge said, "His background is exemplary. But people change. And the record suggests some drastic and tragic changes for Mr. Ujaama."

Mr. Ujaama has a felony conviction for check fraud and several misdemeanor convictions including one for theft. His friends say he became disillusioned when he couldn't sell a screenplay based on his life, and at his brother's suggestion, moved to London.

In London, federal officials claim Ujaama "fell under the influence of Sheik Masri, the Muslim cleric whose followers included Richard C. Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, and Zacarias Moussaoui, who is accused of being the would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. Sheik Masri, who is wanted in Yemen on terrorism charges, remains free in London."

The Indictment against him charges he took a loyalty oath to the Sheik and set up a website for him called "StopAmerica.Org." Not mentioned in the Indictment is the Government's belief that Ujaama attended an Al Qaeda training camp, using a reference letter from the Sheik to gain acceptance.

The Indictment also charges that Ujaama sent a fax to the Sheik in 1999 extolling the virtues of a ranch in Oregon as a place to "store and conceal guns, bunkers and ammunition."

Ujaama's family acknowledges that he became a militant follower of Islam but argue that all of his actions have innocent explanations.

"Bayat, the Arabic word for the loyalty oath, means religious fealty more than personal loyalty, said Mustafa Ujaama. The Web site, he said, was a fount for free speech. "My brother was trying to stop America from going to war," Mustafa Ujaama said."

"The training camp and the trips to Afghanistan, James Ujaama's supporters say, can be explained by Mr. Ujaama's business instincts, suggesting that he was trying to sell Sheik Masri and his followers land and computer equipment."

Ujaama's lawyers and the prosecutors agree on one thing: Ujaama's real use would be in as a witness against Sheik Masri.

Apparently, Ujaama isn't willing to make that deal--yet.

UPI is reporting, using the New York Daily News as a source, that John Walker Lindh was the key to Buffalo Six arrests:

"A "concerned Yemenite" from Lackawanna sent a letter to the FBI in June 2001 that said eight U.S. citizens of Yemeni descent from the upstate, N.Y. city had gone to the Osama bin Laden's al Farooq terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, The Daily News said."

"The FBI investigated but the men denied going to Afghanistan and said they had gone to Pakistan to learn more about Islam and in the summer of 2001, the investigation was at a standstill."

"Lindh began cooperating with investigators on July 15, 2002 and although he could not identify the Lackawanna men because he arrived just as they left, the source told The News he remembered some in the Afghan camp talked about a group from the Buffalo area."

"With this information, the FBI confronted one of the suspects, Mukhtar Al-Bakri, in Bahrain on Sept. 11 and he admitted that the group had attended al Farooq."

The New York Times reports on the mixed reaction in Portland to the arrest of three people there on terrorism charges.

"Some people scoffed at the accusation today by Attorney General John Ashcroft that the group is a "suspected terrorist cell within our borders." Instead, they say these suspects are followers of a militant brand of Islam, but have never conspired to help Al Qaeda."

"Mr. Ford went to Pakistan, but he went there for humanitarian reasons," said James Britt, a lawyer who is Mr. Ford's brother. He stood outside the small bungalow where Mr. Ford lived with his wife, son and mother, while the police searched the area."

"Mr. Britt said his brother had a master's degree in Chinese studies, is married to a Chinese woman, and was a convert to Islam who felt it a duty to render aid to other Muslims. "This is religious persecution," Mr. Britt said. "

Others in the Muslim community in Portland pointed out that the Government has made terrorist allegations about one of their own before it has later retracted:

"Other Muslims here said much the same thing, noting that the case against a Portland cleric arrested last month, Sheik Mohammed Abdirrahman Kariye, has not held up. The government originally said Mr. Kariye was caught trying to leave the country with traces of TNT on his bags. But they said other tests were inconclusive. Mr. Kariye, a popular religious leader at the Islamic Center of Portland, is being held without bond on charges of Social Security fraud."

The investigation into the suspects activities began about a year ago when a sheriff noticed men with turbans shooting rifles into a gravel pit and called the F.B.I.

"All three suspects are African-American, and Mr. Britt said the arrests showed a bias by federal officials against blacks who convert to Islam"

The Feds respond they were "just doing good police work."

American-born John Walker Lindh was sentenced to 20 years as expected today. The AP reported the sentencing hearing was filled with drama despite the agreement of the parties on the length of the sentence. Lindh made a long statement, breaking down several times. He apologized, renounced Bin Laden and criticized the September 11 attacks. Here is the text of Lindh's statement to the Court.

The New York Times reports Lindh told the Judge "that he had gone to Afghanistan out of religious fervor to fight anti-Taliban forces there, not his countrymen, and that he had never taken up arms against American forces. "I did not go to fight against America, and I never did," he said."

According to CNN's coverage of the hearing,

"Walker Lindh denied having any role in Spann's death and the judge said he would not have accepted the plea bargain if there were any proof of such a role."

"Walker Lindh told U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III that he "made a mistake by joining the Taliban" and "had I realized then what I know now about the Taliban I would never have joined them."

Like all federal prisoners, Lindh will do 85% of his sentence, or a little less than 17 years.

Richard Reid made it through his change of plea hearing today, despite his request to strike the allegation that he attended an Al Qaeda training camp from his Indictment. The Judge refused his request but said he would reconsider at sentencing.

Reid was not remorseful. He admitted that he intended to blow up American Airlines flight 63 on Dec. 22, 2001 and the passengers on it, including himself. At one point during the hearing, Reid said, "I'm a follower of Osama bin Laden. I'm an enemy of your country and I don't care."

Reid pleaded to 8 of the 9 charges against him. One had been dismissed by the Court in June. They included, "attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction; attempted homicide; placing an explosive device on an aircraft; attempted murder; two counts of interference with flight crew and attendants; attempted destruction of an aircraft, and using a destructive device during a crime of violence."

The Government said it will seek a sentence of 60 years to life in prison.

In deciding whether to grant bail for the Buffalo Six, the judge has to follow guidelines set forth in the federal bail and detention statute. Here is our earlier post on those guidelines in as plain English (non-legalese) as we could make them. It includes a link to the statute for those who'd like to read it.

John Walker Lindh gets sentenced today. You can read the Sentencing Memoranda filed by his lawyers and the Government here.

Far more interesting is the account of what Lindh told Rohan Gunaratna, the terrorism expert on his defense team, about plans he had heard for post- September 11 attacks. He said three phases of attacks were planned altogether: September 11 was the first; the second was going to make the U.S. forget about Sept. 11 and might include biological and chemical weapons; and the third was going to finish us off.

Authorities say they have received conflicting accounts from many prisoners and have not been able to confirm the information about future attacks. They suspect some prisoners were trained to give misinformation and others are simply repeating rumors or folklore that has spread among them since September 11.

Gunaratna interviewed Lindh for eight hours in July in his jail cell and submitted a report to the Judge. He concluded Lindh "never swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida." He believes nonetheless that Lindh would be a "valuable U.S. intelligence asset because he understood what makes Islamic fundamentalists join conflicts around the world."

After three days of bail hearings over a week ago, the Magistrate Judge in Buffalo had said he would rule October 3, on whether the six men charged with aiding Al-Qaeda by participating in a training camp in Afganistan would be granted bail.

On Friday, the Government filed another affidavit in the case, referring to casettes and documents found during the search of some of the suspects' homes. The Government claimed the new materials contained references to Islam and suicide bombings and established the men were dangerous.

So instead of ruling on the bail issue Thursday, the Judge held another hearing on the meaning of the new documents.

The Government said one document defended suicide bombings. Rodney Personius, the lawyer for the defendant whose home the document was seized from, argued the document was from the spring and summer of 2000, during "part of an inquisitive period" in the young man's life, when he was about to settle down with his high school sweetheart, a Christian, and decided to learn more about religion."

"The folder the document was found in, Mr. Personius said, contained nine other religious documents, also culled from the Internet, on various aspects of Christianity and Islam."

"The document itself, Mr. Personius said, concerned the war in Chechnya, and he presented the judge with an elaborate indexing system to show that the enemies referred to were Russians, not Americans."

The cassette tapes came up next. The Government filed a retraction as to one of the tapes it had claimed at the last hearing contained clerics' justifications for attacks. It turns out the tape "consisted entirely of quotes from the Koran and was "not inflammatory."

However, the Government persists in its claim that tapes found in the house of another suspect are incendiary, which the suspects lawyer denied Thursday, saying "it is a leap to take these tapes and argue their dangerousness," adding it was a "desperate attempt" by the government to twist their meaning.

The Judge said he will rule this coming Tuesday and remarked "It's not a black and white situation," he said. "There are serious constitutional issues here."

The trial of New York lawyer Lynne Stewart on terrorism charges has been set for October, 2003.

Stewart represents the militant and blind Islamic cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman convicted of conspiracy in connection with plans to bomb NYC landmarks. She is charged with helping him communicate with the Egyptian-based Islamic Group from prison. The evidence against her is her jailhouse and telephone conversations with her client, secretly recorded by the Government. Here are more details of her case.

Now this is chilling: "Prosecutors said during a hearing on Thursday that they had evidence gathered from 97,000 phone-line intercepts."

Those 97,000 phone calls can't be solely those of Lynne Stewart--or her client. How many other inmates' legitimate and privileged conversations with their attorneys did the Government intercept and listen to?

On October 31, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an emergency regulation, 66 Fed. Reg. 55062, allowing the monitoring of attorney-client conversations when the Attorney General has "reasonable suspicion" to "believe that a particular inmate may use communications with attorneys or their agents to further or facilitate acts of violence or terrorism." The order recognizes that these communications would "traditionally be covered by the attorney-client privilege." 28 C.F.R. § 501.3(d).

Here are the reasons why defense lawyers and others consider this regulation to be unconstitutional and ethically improper.

Bail arguments were held today in the "Buffalo Six" case in which six men from the Buffalo area are charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization. The Judge will rule next week.

The defense argued "Mere possession of cassette tapes and papers defending suicide attacks is not sufficient to deny bail to six men suspected of comprising an al Qaeda-trained terror cell."

"The judge said for purposes of discussion that the tapes and documents about suicide attacks "would not be a factor all by itself" for deciding whether to grant bail or to keep the men locked up."

Accused "shoe bomber" Richard Reid has agreed to plead guilty to all eight counts against him. He said in a pleading filed with the Court that he has no trouble admitting to all of the charged acts except for training in an Al Qaeda training camp. He asked to have that allegation removed.

Reid's lawyer won't say if Reid is cooperating for a reduced sentence.

Update: Reid's decision to plead guilty caught Justice Department prosecutors by surprise. "He did this unilaterally," one official said. "There is no plea agreement. We are prepared to go to trial on Nov. 4."

Prosecutors have now officially opposed Reid's request to strike the Al Qaeda training camp language from the Indictment.

James Ujaama, the man prosecutors allege tried to set up an Al Qaeda training camp in Bly, Oregon was denied bail today at a hearing in Seattle.

Ujaama has a lot of family support in both Denver and Seattle. His mother and aunt offered to put up their homes for bail but the Court refused, saying it wouldn't assure he wouldn't flee the country before his trial. Ujaama previously worked as an anti-drug crusader and community activist in Seattle, a fact the Judge today acknowledged before stating, "He was a fine citizen over those years but people change.''

Ujaama was arrested in Denver on July 22 on a material witness warrant. He was transferred to Virginia around July 29 and held there until an Indictment for providing material resources to a terrorist organization was returned against him in Seattle. He was then moved to Seattle.

Ujaama was born in Denver as James Thompson. He moved with his family to Seattle when he was 5. His aunt was formerly married to Mayor Wellington Webb's son. The Mayor was unhappy when the Rocky Mountain News printed the connection. But News publisher John Temple thought it was relevant reporting because "the raid occurred in a home now maintained by the ex-wife of the mayor's son, Allen Sr." and because the mayor's 15 year old granddaughter Jamie, cousin to James Ujaama, was in the house at the time police surrounded it to make the arrest. The neighbors reported that Jamie ran out of the house hysterical, claiming that the police had put a gun to her head, which the police have denied. (Rocky Mountain News, July 27)

Before his Indictment, The Rocky Mountain News reported that Ujaama's Denver lawyer confirmed the feds had been considering providing him with immunity at one point. It isn't known why they changed their minds and decided to prosecute him instead.