Earnest James Ujaama (born 1966) is an American community activist and former terrorist.
A long-term resident of Seattle and well-known community activist, Ujaama was arrested under terrorism charges in July 2002, the first American to be detained on US soil while under investigation using the Patriot Act. and moved to Seattle at the age of 5. His mother was a social worker at the Central Area Motivation Program. at the age of 14, he started a business in home maintenance. He worked for Olympic Computers selling IBM computers, but was accused of carrying out scams on his customers.
Terrorism charges
On July 22 2002, Ujaama was arrested in Denver under a material witness warrant, becoming the first American to be detained on US soil while under investigation using the Patriot Act. He was charged by federal grand jury on August 28, 2002. The lead FBI agent in the case testified that he did not believe Ujaama needed to be locked up.
In 2003, Ujaama agreed to cooperate with US authorities in return for a plea deal, receiving two years in jail. He admitted that he had travelled to Afghanistan in 2000 to deliver money and computer equipment to the Taliban, a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Ujaama agreed to testify against Abu Hamza, Oussama Kassir, and Haroon Aswat. All three were charged by prosecutors, but resisted extradition. with US attorney John P. Cronan calling his cooperation "extraordinary" and "largely unprecedented". In a 2021 interview, he said the case against him was "a farce" and accused the US Justice Department of misrepresenting the camp he trained at by falsely linking it to al-Qaida. He said, "I don't feel like I didn't do anything immoral or wrong … I believed in what I was doing … All these things get turned around and twisted around."
Selected bibliography
- Ujaama, Ej. (1991). Young People's Guide to Starting a Business. Self-published.
- Ujaama, Ej. (1993). Entrepreneur Basics 101. Seattle, WA: Be Your Own Boss Publishing.
- Ujaama, Ej. (1994). How to Be An Entrepreneur. Seattle, WA: Be Your Own Boss Publishing.
- Ujaama, Ej. (1996). Coming Up. Seattle, WA: Inner-City Publishing.