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The young men were at loose ends in Lackawanna, a blue-collar town in upstate New York. Restless and curious about their Islamic heritage, they started meeting secretly with a charismatic Muslim fundamentalist who persuaded them to trek to Afghanistan to attend a military training camp. It's a long way from Lackawanna to Lodi, but there are parallels between the New York case and the unfolding federal probe in the San Joaquin County town. --snip-- The seven Lackawanna men headed for Afghanistan in the spring of 2001, according to news accounts of their case. They told their families and friends in...

Lackawanna County Prison officials are investigating the Wednesday morning death of an inmate who family members say had emphysema and needed to receive oxygen 24 hours a day. About 8:25 a.m. Wednesday, Thomas Ogden, 51, of Archbald, complained to the prison’s medical unit that he was having trouble breathing, said Lackawanna County press secretary Jenine Ikeler. He was taken by ambulance to Mercy Hospital at 8:32 a.m., where he was pronounced dead at 8:46 a.m, Ms. Ikeler said. Mr. Ogden died of pulmonary emboli — blood clots in the pulmonary arteries, said Lackawanna County Coroner Joseph Brennan, who ruled the...

...I am voting for George W. Bush because he has shown me that he has the resolve and the strength to fight and win the war against terrorism. In this year's presidential election, the first held since the attacks of 9/11, the most important election in our lifetime, these qualities have never been more critical. I'm voting for President Bush because I was the commissioner of the New York City Police Department on 9/11 and I watched the planes crash into the World Trade Center, and take the lives of 23 of my cops, 37 Port Authority officers, 343 firefighters...

Muslims seek to refute cultural misunderstandings while they move into mainstream of WNY life In the shadow of the large mosque at the corner of Sycamore and Sobieski streets, fear of the unknown sometimes occupies residents. Muslims have bought dozens of homes, staking their property with tall, impenetrable fences. The women journey with groceries from the market in long, flowing dresses and burkas that cover everything but their eyes. The men wear loose-fitting robes, skull caps and untrimmed beards, and walk five times a day to the mosque, Masjid Zakaria, for prayer. Some of their non-Muslim neighbors wonder why they...

This is a photo of the massive crowd that greeted President and Mrs. Bush today. The Yahoo caption reads: President Bush, at podium center right, is surrounded by a sea of supporters at Lackawanna County Stadium, Friday, Sept. 3, 2004, in Moosic, Pa. Bush visited the battleground state of Pennsylvania as part of his post-convention campaign swing through three states he lost in 2000. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

SANA’A - Yemeni authorities have refused to extradite the American Yemeni-born Jaber Al-Banna, 39, to the United States on charges of being the leader of the Lackawanna Six. The US demanded the handover of Al-Banna after Yemeni security authorities captured him several weeks ago. He is now being interrogated to give more information about his link to Al-Qaeda and his leadership of the Lackawanna Six. Deputy Foreign Minister Muhyi Al-Din Al-Dhobbi said that the extradition of Al-Banna is impossible now. The deputy minister denied news that Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi proposed a prisoner swap during his visit to Washington...

Luzerne County Controller Steve Flood said on Wednesday he is planning to subpoena financial records from Northeast Baseball Inc., the non-profit corporation that is supposed to operate the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. Flood wants to issue subpoenas within the next few days, unless Northeast Baseball, which he said has not had a board of directors meeting in "at least five years," submits the financial information he is requesting. Items like annual reports, balance sheets and possible profit margins are all on the controller's wish list. "We're frustrated," he said. "We don't even know who to contact. So we're going to subpoena...

NEW YORK -- The last member of a group of Yemeni-American men from western New York sought by U.S. authorities for attending an al-Qaeda training camp has been taken into custody in Yemen, according to a newspaper report. Jaber Elbaneh was being held by Yemeni authorities, and negotiations are under way for extradition, The New York Times reported in a story for Thursday editions, citing unidentified officials in Yemen and the United States. Six men from Lackawanna pleaded guilty last year to aiding a terrorist organization by attending the camp in Afghanistan in 2001. In December, 31-year-old Sahim Alwan was...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (Reuters) - A judge sentenced the first of six Yemeni-Americans who attended a military-style al Qaeda training camp shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks to 10 years in prison on Wednesday.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Six Yemeni-Americans recruited to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have filled the government in on al-Qaida leaders, their training methods and other topics, according to federal authorities. Since pleading guilty to providing material support to Osama bin Laden's organization, the so-called "Lackawanna Six" have provided "substantial assistance and information deemed highly valuable" to government terrorism investigations, prosecutors said in court papers reviewed by The Associated Press. During several interview sessions lasting from two hours to full days, the men, obligated by plea deals to cooperate, detailed: --...

Sunday's New York Times story on six Yemeni Americans from Lackawanna, N.Y., who attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in May and June of 2001 featured the caveat that the Lackawanna Six presented "a profoundly ambiguous threat." Forget that the six men pleaded guilty to providing material support to Al Qaeda. The Lackawanna Six are victims now. As one of the six, Sahim Alwan, told the newspaper, he thought his trek to Afghanistan's Al Farooq terrorist training camp was part of a "religious quest." He has become the Lackawanna Six's poster boy because he left Al Farooq early....

First there were the arrests of the Lackawanna Six. Then a kidnapping and extortion plot seeking $1 million in ransom money from a Lackawanna Six relative. And on Tuesday, the roundup that netted the arrests of about 20 suspected drug operators, almost half of them local Arab-Americans. Many members of the Arab-American community feel as if they've been hit with one of those battering rams used to break down the front doors of drug houses. "I know the Arab-American community in Lackawanna is under extra scrutiny, mostly from federal agencies," said Mohamed Albanna, vice president of the American Muslim Council...

LONDON, Aug. 22 — American law enforcement officials are monitoring the activities of at least six groups in the United States they suspect are linked to Al Qaeda, senior government officials in the United States and Europe said this week. Most of the individuals whose movements and communications are being closely tracked are believed to be sympathizers of Osama bin Laden who may be engaged in low-level support activities for the Qaeda terror network, like raising money, relaying messages and recruiting new members, American and European officials said. The officials insisted that no evidence had emerged that any of the...

The use of Lackawanna County Prison inmates to work at personal residences has spread beyond prison and county officials. The prison chaplain used prisoners to help build his secluded Dalton dwelling, which is owned by the Diocese of Scranton, the Times-Tribune newspapers has learned. The Rev. William Pickard, who runs the Urban Ministries program at the prison and is an advocate for inmate rights, told the newspapers that prisoners helped construct the St. Joseph the Worker Hermitage on the grounds of St. Pius X Seminary. Father Pickard said he believes the inmate work, done in 1997, was a form of...

The warden at the Lackawanna County Prison is out of a job. Thomas Gilhooley admitted to county commissioners he used inmates and officers to do work at his home. The prison board met Thursday to discuss the fall out from the firing, and they've asked the state to investigate management at the prison. The Lackawanna County Prison Board gathered for the first time since county commissioners fired Warden Tom Gilhooley on Wednesday. Commissioners explained Gilhooley admitted to them that he had prisoners and guards transport items to his home; for example, things for his pool that he stored at the...

Prosecuting Terror No Choice but Guilty Lackawanna Case Highlights Legal Tilt By Michael Powell Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 29, 2003; Page A01 First of two articles LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -- Even now, after the arrests and the anger and the world media spotlight, the mystery for neighbors in this old steel town remains this: Why would six of their young men so readily agree to plead guilty to terror charges, accepting long prison terms far from home? The reality appears to fall between such disbelief and talk of sleeper cells. Two men who were veterans of the war in...

<p>LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -- Even now, after the arrests and the anger and the world media spotlight, the mystery for neighbors in this old steel town remains this: Why would six of their young men so readily agree to plead guilty to terror charges, accepting long prison terms far from home?</p>

Yemeni connection Arrests extend to Michigan in federal probe of money transfers By MICHAEL BEEBE and SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporters 12/19/2002 HARRY SCULL JR./Buffalo News Mohamed T. Albanna of Lackawanna leaves federal court in Buffalo after being freed from jail on $100,000 bond amid cheers and hugs from family and friends. HARRY SCULL JR./Buffalo News Defense lawyer Philip M. Marshall says the government is focusing on his client's lack of a license.(I don't know how to post photographs follow link to source to see these pictures.) The federal government continued its crackdown on illegal money transfers to Yemen on...

Man of the people - arrested By SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporter 12/18/2002 Mohamed T. Albanna, photographed in his Clinton Street store last July, is considered outspoken on issues crucial to Lackawanna. Business owner Andrea Haxton saw Mohamed T. Albanna several days a week. He was her main cigarette distributor and regularly dropped off boxes at her A&E Goods store on Ridge Road and Ingham Avenue on his way home from work. "He delivers them, we pay him, chit-chat, and he goes home," the Lackawanna business owner said. "We talk about politics all the time." Albanna came by Monday night...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 12/19/02 - Amsterdam, Kabul, Lackawanna, Lebanon, Seibersdorf, Taji, Al Nassr, HMS Cardiff, Bethlehem, Denpasar, Gaza, Ramallah, Rotterdam, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum BREAKING: Amsterdam, terror against the IKEA home goods chain BREAKING: Kabul, Amir Mohammed and Gulam Saki BREAKING: Lackawanna arrests BREAKING: Lebanon - On $addam's "amnesty" Iraqi citizens head home BREAKING: Seibersdorf, Austria, laboratories of the International Atomic Energy Agency BREAKING: Taji, Al Nassr mechanical factories - Inspection BREAKING: Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Cardiff 10th Mountain Division train at Fort Drum, Bethlehem, Denpasar, Gaza, Ramallah, Rotterdam ========= Taji ========= In Taji,...