US indictment:Cleric arrested in London tried to establish Oregon terror t

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. indictment: Cleric arrested in London tried to establish Oregon terror training camp


By Larry Neumeister
ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:57 a.m. May 27, 2004

Associated Press
U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, far left, announces the arrest in Great Britain of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, a.k.a. Abu Hamza al-Masri, far right in photo, the fiery Muslim cleric.

NEW YORK – Abu Hamza al-Masri, the fiery Muslim cleric whose shuttered London mosque was linked to Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid, was arrested Thursday in Britain, accused in a U.S. indictment of trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon and providing aid to al-Qaeda, officials said.

Al-Masri, 47, also is charged in the 11-count indictment with hostage-taking and conspiracy in connection with a December 1998 incident that killed four tourists in Yemen.

"Those who support our terrorist enemies anywhere in the world must know that we will not rest until the threat they pose is eradicated," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in announcing the arrest.

Al-Masri, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, was arrested at his London home, British authorities said. He was the imam at the Finsbury Park Mosque, which has been linked to Sept. 11 suspect Moussaoui and Reid and was shut down in January 2003 after a police anti-terrorism raid.
(snip/...)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20040527-0857-radicalcleric.html

[jobendorfer]

1. why Bly, Oregon, though?

Bly is a very small town of a few hundred people in southern
Oregon, east of the mountains. It is very sparsely populated
out there -- population densities often dip below 1 person
per square mile. I've been on road trips out there where you
can drive literally all day -- and pass *1* other car on the
road. Non-locals stand out like the mountains to the west!

Middle-easterners moving onto property out there, even in
small numbers, would have about as much chance of escaping
attention and scrutiny as Alan Arkin and his buddies from
the Soviet sub walking down main street bellowing "EMEER-GEN-
CEY! EMEER-GEN-CY! EVERYONE TO GET FROM STREET!" in _The
Russians Are Coming!_

That just doesn't make sense. You'd think this guy would
pick a place where he'd have some chance of blending in
and disappearing.

J.

[JM]

2. This is BS

One of the arrest announcements after 9/11 involved a small group of people who were setting up a training camp in Oregon. Am I to believe

1) it took two additional years to determine who was behind it and finally arrest them?
2) the action/announcement was held until Bush needed it?

JM