NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A key government witness testified Monday that he was the al Qaeda-trained operative who told a Muslim cleric that a ranch outside Bly, Ore., was the perfect place to set up a jihad training camp in the United States.
James Ujaama said he visited that ranch and wrote to Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, his mentor in London, that the land looks just like Afghanistan and that, because Oregon is pro-militia, pro-firearm state, it would be easy to stockpile weapons for firearms training, WCBS 880’s Irene Cornell reported.
Ujaama testified that after sending the message to Mustafa, two experienced al Qaeda trainers from London — one of them a former bodyguard for Osama bin Laden — arrived at the 160-acre ranch. But the venture collapsed, Ujaama said, when the two trainers became enraged and threatened him because there weren’t enough recruits or weapons on hand.