Prometheus 6

Overzealous?

Ujaama smoking gun up in smoke

Early on, Ujaama was indicted on suspicion of helping set up a terror camp in Oregon. Early on, the government said Ujaama provided material support to terrorists. Officials charged him with giving "training, facilities, computer services, safe houses, and personnel" to al-Qaida. He was gearing up "to murder and maim" people, the feds believed.

That is why the Islamic convert was looking at 25 hard years.

Serious time for serious charges. Who could argue with that?

Then came Monday's plea. Suddenly, a sentence of some two decades was slashed to two years. The Oregon terror camp wasn't just pushed to the back burner. It was shoved off the stove.

. . . So how did the heavy case become so light?

A retired federal prosecutor offered me two theories.

Seen one way, the government had a strong case but retracted its talons because Ujaama was willing to talk. Authorities would overlook his involvement in the Oregon camp and other alleged activities to get at people such as Abu Hamza, the radical Moslem cleric in Europe.

That sounds reasonable.

But if Ujaama was among the worst of the worst, as the feds once claimed, it is quite unnerving to think he will be free in less than two years. Are we to believe he will be miraculously cured of his proclivities toward terror by then? Or was he never the threat he was made out to be?

The second theory is that the government overcharged Ujaama and "did not have the goods on him" as they had once believed, the retired federal prosecutor told me.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 4/18/2003 12:54:47 AM |