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“A suspect in the London bombings lived in a Central Seattle mosque in early 2000 after he had scouted out a possible terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore…”
“He was fearless — he would charge a hundred men,” Ali Shahid Abdul-Raheem, a Muslim convert who met Aswat in Seattle, said in 2002. He described Aswat as “a lion.”
Aswat came to the Northwest in 1999 when James Ujaama, a former Seattle activist, tried to set up a jihad training camp in rural Oregon.
Ujaama was based in London, where he had become a follower of radical cleric Abu Hamza, an al-Qaida supporter.
Abu Hamza sent Aswat to the United States to check out Ujaama’s plans, authorities said.
Aswat arrived with Oussama Kassir, a Swede of Lebanese descent with a lengthy arrest record. They were dismayed by conditions at the ranch, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to The Seattle Times.
On the night of their arrival, Ujaama did not even have a key to unlock the gate to the entry road, the eyewitnesses said. While everyone waited in the dark, he had to walk nearly a mile up the road to find a tenant who could open it.
Upon arriving, Aswat and Kassir were escorted to two cramped and dilapidated travel trailers, which lacked bathrooms or even running water. And during the next two weeks, they lived a hand-to-mouth existence, hunting rabbits and quail to help put food on the table.
At one point, Kassir suggested that they might even consider eating — if they got hungry enough — a few of the ranch dogs, a dish he told others at the ranch he’d sampled while a fighter battling the Soviets in Afghanistan, according to sources who were there at the time.
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002393231_aswat21m.html
“He was fearless — he would charge a hundred men,” Ali Shahid Abdul-Raheem, a Muslim convert who met Aswat in Seattle, said in 2002. He described Aswat as “a lion.”
Aswat came to the Northwest in 1999 when James Ujaama, a former Seattle activist, tried to set up a jihad training camp in rural Oregon.
Ujaama was based in London, where he had become a follower of radical cleric Abu Hamza, an al-Qaida supporter.
Abu Hamza sent Aswat to the United States to check out Ujaama’s plans, authorities said.
Aswat arrived with Oussama Kassir, a Swede of Lebanese descent with a lengthy arrest record. They were dismayed by conditions at the ranch, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to The Seattle Times.
On the night of their arrival, Ujaama did not even have a key to unlock the gate to the entry road, the eyewitnesses said. While everyone waited in the dark, he had to walk nearly a mile up the road to find a tenant who could open it.
Upon arriving, Aswat and Kassir were escorted to two cramped and dilapidated travel trailers, which lacked bathrooms or even running water. And during the next two weeks, they lived a hand-to-mouth existence, hunting rabbits and quail to help put food on the table.
At one point, Kassir suggested that they might even consider eating — if they got hungry enough — a few of the ranch dogs, a dish he told others at the ranch he’d sampled while a fighter battling the Soviets in Afghanistan, according to sources who were there at the time.
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002393231_aswat21m.html