Well, it seems that despite the new coziness allowed by the Patriot Act and the secret FISA Review Court opinion between the Department of Justice (prosecutors) and the CIA/Pentagon (intelligence and military agents), things are not going too swimmingly in the terror trials. Take the case of James Ujaama-- he's the Denver native who supposedly helped an Al Qaeda honcho set up a website, sold some computers to them and "scouted" for a terror training camp in Bly, Oregon. [full details, here.]

He's been indicted in Seattle on charges including the ubiquitous "supplying material aid to terrorists" charge and is awaiting trial, in jail of course. Now it seems the Pentagon has refused to allow the Department of Justice to call three witnesses in its custody at Ujaama's trial.

As federal prosecutors in Seattle prepare their case against American terrorism suspect James Ujaama, their access to three key witnesses is being denied — by other federal officials.

The Justice Department and the Pentagon are in a tense standoff over the use of so-called "enemy combatants" who are in the custody of the Department of Defense at bases in Cuba, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Prosecutors want to be able to use some detainees as witnesses in terror-related criminal cases filed in U.S. courts — including the cases against Ujaama, the former Seattle man charged with conspiring to support al-Qaida terrorists, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the French citizen suspected as the "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the only man charged in the U.S. in connection with that terrorism.

But military officials are refusing to give the federal attorneys access to the detainees....

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle asserts that the impasse is jeopardizing Ujaama's prosecution.

We understood (although we disagreed) when the Pentagon fought to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from interviewing or calling witnesses in the custody of the military--for example, alleged "enemy combatant" Ramzi Binalshibh (aka bin al Shibh) (former roomate of Mohammed Attah) --but what's going on here that one agency of the Federal Government can't share with another agency?

The Judge has told the prosecutors that the two agencies will have to "figure it out." She is not likely to grant the Government a continuance of Ujaama's June trial date. So what happens then? Without witnesses, the case is dismissed, right? We doubt it, but still, it's an interesting development and one that bears watching.

Thanks to Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs for her track-back ping that led us to the Seattle Times article.

You can find more from us on Moussaoui and Binalshibh, and the Administration's conflicting positions here.

Some of our prior posts on Ujaama, are here, here, and here.