The capture this week in Iraq of '80s-era Palestinian terrorist Mohammed Abu Abas is a major symbolic victory in the war on terrorism. The Bush administration has made good on a longstanding U.S. government promise to keep chasing terrorists for as long as it takes--even decades--to bring them to justice. But a more practical and perhaps significant achievement in the U.S. campaign against Islamic terrorism was largely overshadowed by the Abu Abas arrest and other news from the war zone. This was an announcement by federal prosecutors and the Justice Department that a small-time Islamic militant from Seattle had reached a plea bargain with U.S. authorities that will include his "cooperation" with ongoing terrorism investigations. Law-enforcement sources say that in practice this means that the Seattle militant, James Ujaama, will be expected to give testimony against Abu Hamza al-Masri, a London-based radical imam who U.S. and British authorities for years have suspected of indoctrinating followers in violent jihad ideology and encouraging them to travel abroad to wage holy war.

Ujaama, who was originally arrested last year on charges of supporting terrorism, agreed to plead guilty to charges that he provided computer software and "services" to the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. This charge carries a maximum prison sentence of a decade. But in return for his cooperation with U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence officers, officials said, prosecutors will recommend that Ujaama only serve two years in jail.

In plea-bargain documents released by the government, Ujaama agrees that for more than a year he designed and helped operate a militant Islamic Web site called Supporters of Sharia. According to the documents, Ujaama also acknowledges that in late 2000, at the request of an "unindicted coconspirator #1," he arranged for and helped someone identified as "coconspirator #2" travel from London to Afghanistan to undergo violent jihad training.

U.S. law-enforcement sources identify "coconspirator #1" as Abu Hamza, a fiery orator from Egypt who until very recently was a preacher at the radically oriented Finsbury Park Mosque in north London. Hamza has been reviled by Britain's raucous tabloid press for his lurid anti-American diatribes and for his physical handicaps, which include a severely-injured eye and hook-shaped prosthetic hands which he was fitted with after supposedly being injured in an explosion in Afghanistan.

U.S. and British intelligence have suspected for years that Abu Hamza's mosque was a major recruitment and indoctrination center for would-be holy warriors throughout Europe. At least two accused terrorists now in U.S. jails on post-9-11 criminal charges--would-be shoe-bomber Richard Reid (once a petty criminal from south London) and accused 9-11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui (a French citizen who once went to college in London)--both reportedly attended Abu Hamza's prayer meetings at the Finsbury Park Mosque. Investigators believe the mosque and Abu Hamza's preachings may have played a critical role in their eventual recruitment by Al Qaeda.

Because of Abu Hamza's inflammatory anti-U.S. rhetoric--in February he said the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed by God because it was carrying an Israeli Jew, American Christians and an Indian-born Hindu--and his history of apparent contacts with terrorist suspects, U.S. officials since 9-11 have been trying to figure out a way to put him out of action and, if possible, bring him to the States for trial. American officials say that Ujaama's plea agreement indicates he is now likely to provide significant testimony that could lead to a U.S. criminal indictment against Abu Hamza and, ultimately, a possible U.S. request for his extradition from Britain to the U.S. to face trial. (The British government has already acted to try to separate Abu Hamza from his flock in Britain, first by obtaining an order from charity regulators banning him from preaching at his mosque, and then by raiding the mosque itself. This led to the discovery of suspicious documents and chemical-protection gear inside the mosque.)