Update [2005-7-24 13:38:56 by Armando]: From the diaries by Armando. Edited for clarity.
The Justice Department blocked efforts by federal prosecutors in Seattle in 2002 to bring criminal charges against Haroon Aswat, a suspect in the July 7 London bombings, according to a report in today's
Seattle Times.
British intelligence officials now think that in the days and hours before the July 7 bombings, Aswat was in cellphone contact with at least two of the four suicide bombers, according to The Times of London.
Aswat was a highly public aide to Abu Hamza al Masri, the militant cleric whose North London mosque was a hotbed of radical Islamist preaching. In 1999, Aswat came to the attention of the FBI and federal prosecutors here as part of the investigation into the Bly camp and its founder, former Seattle entrepreneur James Ujaama. [Ed. The Bly camp was an al-Qaida effort to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon.]
As law-enforcement officials in Seattle prepared to take that case to a federal grand jury here, they had hoped to indict Aswat, Ujaama, Abu Hamza and another associate, according to former and current law-enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.
An indictment in 2002 would have resulted in an arrest warrant and Aswat's detention in London for extradition to the U.S.
But that plan was rejected by higher-level officials at Justice Department headquarters, who wanted most of the case to be handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York City, according to sources involved with the case.
Since September 11, the Justice Department routinely sent all terrorism cases to its New York office because it had more experience. Seattle prosectors, however had a track record for terrorist prosecutions, most notably Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaida trainee who was arrested in December, 1999, in Port Angeles, Washington as he tried to enter the country from Canada with powerful bomb components hidden in his rental car. The subsequent investigation uncovered the "Millennium plot," an al-Qaida plan that targeted Los Angeles International Airport.
Justice Department supervisors in Washington, D.C., gave the Seattle office the go-ahead to seek an indictment against Ujaama only.
Ujaama was indicted by a Seattle grand jury in August 2002, charged with trying to set up the Bly camp and with aiding the Taliban. He pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban and agreed to testify against Abu Hamza and others.
Aswat was not charged but was referred to in the indictment as "co-conspirator #2."
In May 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced an 11-count indictment by a federal grand jury in New York against Abu Hamza, who allegedly sent Aswat to Oregon to scout out the proposed training camp. A department news release said "the indictment alleges that Abu Hamza was a terrorist facilitator with global reach -- from aiding hostage takers in Yemen, to attempting to set up a jihad training camp in Oregon."
It's unclear as to why Aswat was not included in the indictments. "Asked why Aswat wasn't indicted, a federal official in Seattle replied, 'That's a great question.'" Aswat was high profile and was in the thick of the Bly training camp plot. There was no question of his involvement, and the Seattle office felt it had enough evidence against him to indict.
Whatever reason, and my bet is further Justice Department bungling in which Aswat just fell through the cracks, this dangerous al-Qaida operative is still out there.
Update [2005-7-24 13:28:36 by mcjoan]: The main entry box won't allow me to add in the detail about what the "Bly camp" is. It was an al-Qaida effort to set up a terrorist-training camp in Bly, Oregon.