In The Back Yard: The Oregon Terror Farm

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An amazing testimony given at a Manhattan federal courthouse: This is how an al-Qaeda training base operated out of an agricultural farm in Oregon.

An amazing testimony was given recently at a Manhattan federal courthouse – how an al-Qaeda training base was operating in an Oregon agricultural farm.

Eva Hatley, an American who took up Islam, testified that after she opened up her farm to local Muslims, according to her in order to provide them with an agricultural background, they turned the place into an al-Qaeda training ground – including weapons training, killing people and preparing for Jihad. Many Muslims reached the farm in 1999, people Hatley met during prayers at a local mosque.

Eva Hatley is a witness in Hamza al-Masri’s trial, who was charged in a federal courthouse in Manhattan with committing several acts of terror, among them establishing a terrorist training camp and a kidnapping in Yemen in 1998 which resulted in the deaths of four tourists.

According to the New York Post al-Masri’s attorney denied these allegations, claiming that the camp was like a “boy scout camp” and the men were “learning to ride horses.” Hatley, however, testified that one of the Muslims who reached the farm, Osama Kassour, bragged to her about his experience in establishing and managing al-Qaeda training camps. He even claimed that at one time he worked as an assassin for Osama Bin-Laden.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The defendant al-Masri and his friends were sent to her family’s farm in order to receive firearms training, learn how to throw knives and in general “prepare men for Jihad.” The same Osama al-Kassour is a Muslim, Swede national born in Lebanon, charged in 2009 with aiding al-Qaeda with establishing the same training camp in Oregon and with distribution of firearms instruction manuals on the internet.

According the Hatley the farm “looked like a place in Afghanistan.” A few people held CDs with instructions for killing people. “There were discussions on robbing and killing truck drivers on Oregon highways,” she told the court. Hatley testified that she became afraid and escaped the farm in 1999 “out of fear.”

Al-Masri’s attorney cast doubts on Hatley’s credibility as a witness. If found guilty his client, al-Masri, is expected to serve a life sentence in prison for committing acts of terror.

Source: Homeland Security News