Ranch ‘was site for planned terror camp’

IT was in a sleepy part of rural Oregon where Abu Hamza allegedly tried to set up a training camp for a new wave of al-Qaida terrorists.

According to law-enforcement sources and court documents, Hamza and his alleged co-conspirators hoped to turn the ranch, 30 miles north of the California border, into a jihadist training centre.

There, they planned to stash weapons and concoct poisons to be used in attacks on US cities.

US officials long feared that the large, open spaces of America's north west and its proximity to the Canadian border would make it an ideal area for a terror training camp.

The remote ranch in the town of Bly, in south-central Oregon, was believed to have been the site of at least one training event in November 1999, law enforcement officials believe.

Sources said Hamza travelled to the ranch at that time.

But it was never established as a full-blown terror training centre and it attracted major FBI attention.

Local Sheriff Tim Evinger has confirmed the FBI's involvement and said the 160-acre patch of land, formerly occupied by a sheep-herder, came under suspicion in late 1999.

Earnest James Ujaama, a US-born convert to Islam, was arrested in connection with the training camp plot and jailed earlier this year.

He received just two years in jail after reportedly agreeing to co-operate with the US authorities.

Residents said FBI agents descended on their small town in June 2003 seeking answers about the ranch, who by then had left.