US Accuses Swedish-Lebanese Man Of Being Al-Qaeda Operative
April 22, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
In opening arguments in federal court Tuesday, U.S. prosecutors argued that Ousama Kassir, a Swedish man of Lebanese descent, was planning to set up an Al-Qaeda terrorist training camp in the United States.
Kassir was extradited to the United States in September 2007 from Prague, where he was jailed after his arrest in 2005 during a stopover while flying from Sweden to Lebanon.
“This case concerns a global conspiracy that takes place down here in the United States,” assistant U.S. attorney Michael Farbiarz told judge John Keenan in district court in Manhattan.
Kassir, 43, is charged with conspiring with others to set up a “jihad” camp in Oregon, in the northwest United States, that would offer military weapons training for Muslims interested in fighting in Afghanistan.
Kassir declared his innocence when he was charged last year, and his lawyer on Tuesday said his client had “a big mouth,” but was not a criminal.
Kassir arrived in the United States in 1999 and spent a year at an Oregon ranch, imparting religious teachings at a Seattle mosque before returning to Europe, according to the prosecution.
“You are going to see a knife that he used for training at the ranch,” Farbiarz told the jury as Kassir, in a red tunic, listened through an interpreter.
“You will see the bomb-making manuals and the poison making manuals,” he added.
Farbiarz said next week he would call James Ujaama, a former activist from Seattle who has admitted supporting the Al-Qaeda network and is now a witness for the prosecution.
Kassir allegedly admitted before witnesses he supported Al-Qaeda and its boss Osama bin Laden.
The government also accused Kassir of being a follower of Egyptian Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, currently jailed in Britain for inciting to violence.
