An American hero?

Just before my NIC blew out on Saturday, I was doing some browsing and noticed Amir Butler whining about the fate of a certain James Ujaama. Mr. Ujaama, before his recent incarceration, was the editor of a pleasant little website called StopAmerica.org. (Go on, take a peek.)

Butler thinks the man is (or at least was) "an American hero" because he used his own money to publish a book called "Young People's Guide to Starting a Business Without Selling Drugs." And to support this point (?), he links to this article (among others):

Feds Arrest Al Qaeda Suspects With Plans to Poison Water Supplies

WASHINGTON — Federal officials have arrested two Al Qaeda terror suspects in the U.S. with documents in their possession about how to poison the country's water supplies, Fox News has learned.

The first case involves James Ujaama, 36, who surrendered to the FBI last week in Denver. Sources say they found documents about water poisoning among several other terrorism-related documents in his Denver residence.

Sources say the government has additional evidence that prior to Sept. 11 James Ujaama acted as a courier delivering laptop computers to the Taliban. Federal agents seized two computers and two floppy disks from the house where James Ujaama had been staying when he was arrested as a material witness to terrorist activity, his brother said.

James Ujaama's brother is Mustafa Ujaama, the founder of the now-closed Dar-us-Salaam mosque in Seattle. The FBI has been investigating activities and officials from the former mosque for several months.

Investigators believe officials and members of the mosque were trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore., Fox News has confirmed. Investigators say there is evidence that Mustafa Ujaama visited Bly to check it out as a possible facility location.

Butler says Ujaama was arrested because he "criticizes American policy." Michelle Malkin isn't convinced. But she's coming at this from a different angle:

Ujaama hasn't been charged with anything. He is, of course, innocent until proven guilty of any terrorism-related allegations. But if you are a family member or old acquaintance of such a suspect, you might properly feel alarmed. Angry. And maybe even secretly suspicious of the person you thought you knew so well, but perhaps had deep, unspoken doubts about over the years.

If you are a prominent local black activist or politician, however, you whip out your race card and start making excuses, spreading blame and mouthing off when chastened silence would be the wiser course.

"I don't know everything James Ujaama did when he was in London," said Charlie James, a black community activist in Seattle who heads something called the "Organization of African American Unity." "But I've been knowing (sic) him all his life." Ujaama -- who founded an extremist pro-Muslim Web site after Sept. 11 called "StopAmerica.org" and visited Pakistan several times since the terrorist attacks -- has a "streak of militancy," James acknowledged. But he declared unequivocally that Ujaama is not a terrorist.

Ron Sims, King County, Wash., executive and the highest-ranking African American elected official in the state, echoed the declaration publicly. Of Ujaama and his younger brother, Mustafa, Sims said: "These two gentlemen are community activists, not terrorists." Larry Gossett, a black King County councilman added: "Both of these cats have had a positive, contributing role in the African American community here."

James Ujaama's "biggest problem is that he's so damn inquisitive that he'll go anywhere anyplace anytime. I think that's what got him in trouble," Charlie James naively pontificated. Most of us satisfy our inquisitive impulses by visiting a library, not by hopscotching across hotbeds of al Qaeda activism. But never mind that. Building on this innocent scholar image, James told another reporter that Ujaama simply traveled abroad "to see how other Muslims are living." He's "a curious guy," James said. "He goes out to see the world."

Where did Ujaama, a young, self-employed computer technician of limited means, get the money for all these travels?

Of Ujaama and his brother's visit to the Bly, Ore., site suspected of being a terrorist training camp, Charlie James shrugs. It was simply a recreational "practice shooting" trip, he pooh-poohs.

Practice for what?

Malkin makes some interesting points, but her essay also suggests a more sinister element of this story. To what extent might some find it expedient to manipulate post-9/11 sentiments to exacerbate racial polarization in this country? Not a pretty picture. Unless, of course, an America divided on as many fronts as possible is your ultimate (or, rather, penultimate) goal.