Taliban Aider Back to Federal Prison

SEATTLE -- A man convicted of helping the Taliban was found guilty and sent back to prison Thursday for violating parole by traveling to Belize with a fake Mexican passport.

Judge Barbara Rothstein sentenced James Ujaama to the maximum two years in federal prison on charges that also included lying to a federal officer and leaving the U.S. without permission.

Ujaama, 41, a Muslim convert who was born James Earnest Thompson, was arrested outside a Belize mosque in mid-December carrying a Mexican passport with the name "Jose Ramirez," despite orders that he remain in the U.S.

"I am sorry that we're all here today under these circumstances. You did violate the court's trust in you," Rothstein told Ujaama.

Ujaama's attorney, Peter Offenbecher, apologized on his client's behalf. After the hearing, he would not say why his client left the country.

"Sometimes good people make bad decisions," he said.

Previously, federal officials had said if Ujaama was found guilty of parole violations, the government could drop its plea agreement and file new charges that he offered support to terrorists.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Bruce would not comment Thursday on that possibility.

Ujaama 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 of conspiring to provide cash, computers and fighters to the Taliban. In exchange, Ujaama served two years in prison and agreed to cooperate with terrorism investigations until 2013.

Federal officials have called Ujaama's help 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.

Al-Masri was arrested in England on a U.S. extradition warrant but has since been sentenced to seven years in jail there for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims.