Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Blotter:

A suspect sought by the United States for allegedly plotting to establish a terror training camp in the northwest United States was extradited from the Czech Republic to the United States, where he arrived today.

Oussama Kassir, a Lebanon-born Swedish citizen who is an alleged associate of Abu Hamza al Masri, the radical cleric currently jailed on terror-related charges in Britain, was arrested on Sunday in the Czech Republic after a court ruled there was no reason to refuse a 2006 U.S. extradition request.

In August, an American credited with a key role in the terror training camp scheme pleaded guilty to terrorism charges n federal court in New York. James Ujaama, a Muslim convert from Seattle, admitted he tried to set up the camp in Bly, Ore., in 1999 and had informed Abu Hamza that he and others were stockpiling weapons and ammunition in the United States. The charges carried a potential prison sentence of up to 30 years.

The allegations against Kassir are similar to those leveled against Ujaama, who has cooperated with authorities, and other alleged co-conspirators: he allegedly wanted to teach military-style methods to Muslims seeking to travel to Afghanistan to fight or receive further training there.

According to a Seattle Times account in 2002, Kassir, an unemployed engineer, told the newspaper he was a “supporter” of Osama bin Laden: “I love al Qaeda … I love Osama bin Laden.”

“I am against President Bush because he killed too many Muslims,” he said at the time, in a telephone interview from Stockholm. “I hate him to death.”

Court documents say Ujaama found the rural property in Bly and then sought help from Abu Hamza to set up the camp. Abu Hamza allegedly responded by sending Kassir and Haroon Aswat to Seattle.

Both Abu Hamza and Aswat have been charged in connection with the Bly camp. Both are in custody in London.

An announcement related to Kassir’s extradition is expected later today in New York.

NEW YORK (AP) - A Lebanese-born Swede suspected of plotting to set up a terrorist camp in Oregon was extradited to the United States on Tuesday.
Oussama Kassir was taken to FBI offices for fingerprinting and processing after arriving on a flight from Prague. Federal prosecutors were expected to discuss the case later in the day.

Kassir was arrested on Dec. 11, 2005, at Prague’s Ruzyne international airport in the Czech Republic while flying from Sweden to Lebanon. The United States requested his extradition, and Czech Justice minister Jiri Pospisil ruled on Sept 18 there was no reason to refuse the request.

The U.S. complaint alleges that Kassir and others conspired to establish a training camp for jihad, or holy war, in Bly, Ore. It says Kassir and others wanted to set up the camp to teach military-style methods so a community of Muslims could move to Afghanistan to fight or receive further training there.

Authorities in Oregon have said the camp never materialized beyond a dozen people taking target practice and was abandoned for unknown reasons.

The complaint refers to a letter faxed from one alleged conspirator to another saying that the Bly property was in a “pro-militia and firearms state” that “looks just like Afghanistan” and that the group was “stockpiling weapons and ammunition.”

The complaint said that on Nov. 26, 1999, Kassir and another conspirator traveled from London to New York and then to Seattle and Bly to help with the training camp. Bly is an unincorporated town of a few hundred residents, 50 miles east of Klamath Falls.

Kassir was born in Lebanon and moved to Sweden in 1984. He became a citizen five years later. He spent several months in prison in 1998 for assaulting a police officer and drug possession. A Swedish court jailed him for 10 months two years ago for illegal weapons possession.