STRANGE NEWS

The plea in federal court to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and providing material support or resources to terrorists means Ujaama, 41, could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

He will be sentenced Dec. 12.

Ujaama was once a prized U.S. government cooperator. He pleaded guilty in April 2003 to lesser charges of conspiring to provide cash, computers and fighters to the Taliban. He served two years in prison and agreed to cooperate with terrorism investigations until 2013.

Then in February, he was returned to prison for violating parole by traveling to Belize with a fake Mexican passport.

Ujaama said Monday he fled because he did not want to testify in a case pending against Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.



Ujaama came to the attention of law enforcement for trying to set up a jihad-training camp in Bly, Ore., in 1999. He was accused of charges that could have put him in prison for 25 years. But he pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed the deal, saying Ujaama's cooperation would produce more convictions of terrorists.

But Monday, the terrorist who was convicted was Ujaama. He admitted to two counts of conspiring to provide and conceal material support or resources by:

# Talking with Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical Muslim cleric at a London mosque, about setting up the Bly camp and telling him that he was stockpiling weapons for it. Ujaama met two of al-Masri's associates and took them to Bly.

Al-Masri was sentenced in 2006 to seven years in prison in Britain for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims. He also faces terrorism charges in the U.S.

# Supporting violent jihad in Afghanistan. He is accused of traveling from London to New York to raise money for a fund at al-Masri's mosque. Money from the fund was to be used for some travel expenses for Ujaama and a follower of al-Masri's to go to a jihad-training camp in Afghanistan.

He also pleaded guilty to providing and concealing material support or resources to terrorists. Court documents say he escorted the follower to Pakistan to receive training in Afghanistan and to fight "jihad on the front lines in Afghanistan."

A sentencing date has not been set. Ujaama's attorney, Peter Offenbecher of Seattle, said Ujaama sees his guilty plea "as an opportunity to accept responsibility for his past and move forward with his life in a new direction."