Man who helped Taliban back in court

WASHINGTON – A Seattle man convicted of helping the Taliban was back in federal court Tuesday for violating the terms of his probation, authorities said.

James Ujaama, a Muslim convert, was arrested over the weekend in Belize, Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said. Under the terms of Ujaama’s plea agreement, he was to surrender his passport after serving two years in prison and is not allowed to travel overseas y during his three-year probation without written permission from the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle, where he was convicted in 2003.

Ujaama was brought back Tuesday to the United States, and waived his rights to a removal hearing in U.S. District Court in Miami. Sierra said Ujaama was being held without bail, and soon will be transferred to Seattle.

Ujaama, who was born James Earnest Thompson, was charged in 2002 with trying to set up a terrorist training camp for Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.

He pleaded guilty a year later to lesser charges: conspiring to provide cash, computers and fighters to the Taliban. In exchange, Ujaama served a two-year sentence and agreed to cooperate with terrorism investigations until 2013.

Federal officials have said Ujaama’s help was crucial in the 2004 indictment of al-Masri on charges of trying to establish the training camp in Bly, Ore., and providing aid to al-Qaida. Authorities also questioned Ujaama in the case of Haroon Rashid Aswat, linked to the July 2005 transit bombings in London that killed 56 people.

Ujaama’s attorney in Seattle, Peter Offenbecher, declined to say whether he had recently spoken with his client.

“We’re investigating the facts to determine the appropriate course of action,” Offenbecher said. He refused to comment further.

Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle, said it was unclear when Ujaama would appear there. “It’s determined by when the marshals get him here,” Langlie said.