05:40 PM PDT on Wednesday, July 20, 2005

By kgw.com, NBC and CNN Staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Investigators probing the London terror bombings are focusing on an elusive British Muslim suspect who is connected to a previous plot to set up a terrorist training camp in rural southern Oregon, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials.

Officials told both NBC News and CNN Wednesday that Haroon Rashid Aswat, believed to be a mastermind of the London bombings, is the same British-born Muslim of Indian descent who scouted a Bly, Oregon ranch to set up a terror camp.

kgw.com map

These officials said Aswat, a Pakistani national being sought for questioning as a person of interest by British authorities, was among three unindicted co-conspirators in the Oregon incident.

U.S. officials said a 2002 indictment in the Bly case links Aswat directly to Abu Hamza al-Masri, a fiery, one-eyed radical cleric from a London mosque who is now on trial in Britain for possessing al-Qaida literature and inciting the killing of Jews and other non-Muslims.

"I think this just gives us a glimpse into what might be happening inside the United States," said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Francona, an NBC News terrorism expert. "We were able to uncover one operation — how many others are out there?"

"What's very scary is not only can they travel very easily through Europe, they could travel very easily to the United States because of their British citizenship," added retired Portland State University professer Gary Perlstein, a KGW terrorism expert.

The documents reveal Aswat worked with a Seattle man, James Ujaama, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to a charge of providing support to the Taliban for his role in trying to set up the "jihad training camp." Ujaama is now cooperating with federal prosecutors.

The southern Oregon ranch that may have been scouted as a potential terrorist training camp. (KGW Photo)

Court documents in the Ujaama case said a conspirator, whom U.S. officials identified as Aswat, arrived in New York City in November 1999 on Abu Hamza's orders. He made his way to Oregon, according to the documents, "for the purpose of evaluating the Bly property as a jihad training camp."

In the indictment, prosecutors also alleged the conspirators "met potential candidates for jihad training ... established security for the Bly property ... and they and others participated in firearms training and viewed a video recording on the subject of improvised poisons."

The documents also said Aswat, along with another conspirator, lived in Seattle in early 2000 and "expounded on the teachings" of Abu Hamza.

Aswat, in his early 30s, has family that lives in Leeds in northern England, where three of the four suspected London suicide bombers resided. At his family's house, neighbors said they haven't seen Aswat in nearly 10 years.

Aswat's believed to be hiding out in Pakistan, where government officials said he wasn't in custody and remained at large as of Wednesday night.