Terror Watch: A Legal Counterattack

Though publicly praising Britain's help in the war on terror, some U.S. officials privately had been irritated by seemingly endless British legal delays in rounding up and extraditing terrorism suspects. Three British residents indicted by U.S. authorities more than four years ago as alleged co-conspirators in the suicide-bombing attacks on American embassies in Africa are still languishing in British jail cells appealing against U.S. extradition requests. Though their pleas already have been rejected by the House of Lords legal committee, Britain's highest court, the extraditions are still tangled in legal red tape. Tony Blair's government recently acted to streamline extradition procedures, and also pushed through a bill that would empower the British government to revoke the citizenship of naturalized Britons who foment or recruit terrorists. British officials have leaked word that Abu Hamza, who got citizenship by marrying a British woman, is likely to be one of the first targets of the draconian new powers. This could make his extradition to the U.S. even quicker, assuming testimony from Ujaama helps U.S. prosecutors bring a grand jury indictment of his former prayer leader. U.S. law-enforcement officials said they did not know when a grand jury might begin to hear testimony from Ujaama.

One complication U.S. officials will have to deal with when they use Ujaama as a witness against Abu Hamza is how to deal with the person identified in Ujaama's plea bargain as "coconspirator #2." U.S. law-enforcement sources identify this person as a prisoner at the antiterrorism detention camp in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay. British media reports have named the Guantanamo detainee whom Ujaama allegedly recruited for jihad training as 23-year-old Feroz Abassi, a student from south London who was picked up in Afghanistan by U.S. forces after 9-11. According to one London news report, Abassi, who like other Guantanamo prisoners has not been allowed access to legal counsel, at some point may have made a confession to investigators from the British counterintelligence agency MI-5, who were allowed to visit him at Guantanamo. It is unclear whether this confession, if it exists, helped investigators to get onto the trail of Ujaama. Ujaama's plea agreement notes, however, that he has pledged to cooperate with investigators at any location in the U.S. or at the Guantanamo Naval Station.

Louise Christian, a London lawyer who has been hired by Abassi's family, told NEWSWEEK that because she has been unable to speak to her client in Guantanamo, she does not know whether or not reports of his confession are accurate. Christian said that Ujaama's two-year plea-bargain deal indicates he is being treated far more kindly than Abassi, who has been in Guantanamo for 16 months already with no sign as to when a release, or even an assessment of his case, is likely to occur. Lawyers for Abu Hamza and Ujaama could not be immediately reached for comment.

Bush administration officials say that the fact that they are close to putting together a complicated legal case that would not only put one of Europe's most influential jihad preachers out of commission but would also bring him to the U.S. on criminal charges demonstrates how they have been successful at making major gains in the war on terrorism even while making war in Iraq. While ultimate validation of this claim awaits further legal action against Abu Hamza, the Bush administration certainly does appear to be due some credit for getting erstwhile U.S. antiterror ally Britain to mount a serious crackdown on a radical Islamic milieu in London, which many U.S. experts believe was festering openly for far too long.

Terror Watch, written by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball appears online weekly

© 2003