Posted on 09/14/2002 4:37:54 PM PDT by Pokey78
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 Five Arab-American men charged today with operating an active Al Qaeda terrorist cell in western New York received weapons training in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001 and had been sent back to the United States to await the order for an attack on American targets, federal law enforcement officials said today.
The five suspects, all of them born in the United States and of Yemeni descent, were arraigned today in Buffalo on federal charges of providing "material support" to terrorists. They were arrested on Friday night in raids on their homes and businesses in Lackawanna, a suburb of Buffalo that has a large Yemeni community and where the suspects lived within a few blocks of one another.
The arrests in New York suggest that, for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department may have detected and shut down an active Qaeda terrorist cell in the United States.
Law enforcement officials in Washington said they had no evidence to suggest that any attack by the group was imminent.
"We have not seen any plans of an imminent attack in western New York or elsewhere in the United States," the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said in announcing the arrests. But he added, "We do not fully know the intentions of those who are charged today."
Federal officials in Washington said they were tipped to the existence of the cell by two other members of the group, who were cooperating with the authorities.
Those two have said that members of the Lackawanna cell trained together in June 2001 at Al Farouk training camp near Kandahar, law enforcement officials said. The officials said the pair had reported that while they were at the camp, Osama bin Laden had visited, delivering a speech in which he repeated his familiar call for a holy war against the United States and Israel.
At a news conference at the Justice Department, Larry Thompson, deputy attorney general, said that the five men had received training at the camp in the use of "Russian assault rifles, handguns and long-range rifles."
Among the other young Muslim men who trained at Al Farouk in the summer of 2001 was John Walker Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan by American forces late last year and has since pleaded guilty to taking up arms against the United States as a soldier in the Taliban army.
As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Lindh agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department; federal officials would not comment today on whether information provided by Mr. Lindh helped lead investigators to the men arrested in upstate New York.
Mayor John Kuryak of Lackawanna said today that he was informed six months ago that the F.B.I. was conducting an investigation in the city, an old steel town southeast of Buffalo.
"When you first hear about it, you do get that initial shiver," Mr. Kuryak said. "You almost tell yourself, `Not in my backyard, not in my community.' "
But while federal authorities were reported to have had the city's large Yemeni community under scrutiny for several months, federal law enforcement officials in Washington said that the information that led to the arrests was received only in the last several days.
That information, apparently from the two cooperating witnesses, had been among the factors that led to the Bush administration's decision on Sept. 10 to raise the nationwide terrorist alert status to "orange," symbolizing a high risk of a terrorist attack, officials said.
Mr. Thompson cautioned today, however, that "the elevation of our status alert was made after considering a number of factors" and that the discovery of the Lackawanna cell had "not specifically" led to the nationwide warning on Tuesday, the day before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Officials said the initial investigation began on the basis of information from within the Muslim community of Lackawanna and nearby communities in western New York that people loyal to Mr. bin Laden and Al Qaeda might be living among them.
At the news conference in Washington, Mr. Thompson and other officials repeatedly praised the cooperation received from American Muslims in New York and elsewhere in the search for terrorists on American soil.
"I want to thank the Muslim community of Buffalo for their extraordinary cooperation," he said, offering few details on the nature of that cooperation and adding that the arrests "send an unambiguous message that we will crack down on terrorists where they hide."
The five men arrested on Friday were identified as Yahya Goba, Sahim Alwan, Shafal Mosed, Yasein Taher and Faysal Galab.
They were charged with violating a federal statute that makes it a crime to provide "material support" to a designated foreign terrorist organization like Al Qaeda. In this case, the men are charged with providing support in the form of their participation in training at the camp in Afghanistan.
In 1996, when the law was passed, Congress broadly defined material support to include almost anything of value except for medicine or religious materials a list that included the provision of "personnel" or "training" to a foreign terrorist organization.
If convicted, each of the men would face up to 15 years in prison.
The Justice Department's description of the case today suggested that at least one other member of the Lackawanna cell was still at large. According to that account, eight members of the cell the five men under arrest, the two cooperating witnesses, as well as another unidentified man traveled together to Afghanistan last year.
Mr. Thompson hinted that other arrests of members of the cell might be imminent.
"I want to emphasize that the investigation of the Buffalo cell is ongoing," he said. "We are working to develop additional evidence and information about the activities of this cell."
Pagan FundaMentalist EnvironMentalists or:
Fundamentalist Pagan EnvironMentalists or:
Use the favorite word of the maggot media:
Extreme Fundamentalist Pagan EnvirionMentalists!
Ok then, why doesn't someone ask how the heck they afford to travel to Afganistan for extended visits?
.
A woman I work with had a version that works well, she said her family has been American for at least 5 generations and her ethnic heritage is Spanish and American Indian and possibly some Mexican Indian. I think if ethnicity is the conversation I'll do something similar from now on, otherwise my only country is this one.
Very good news.
I think some famous individual said they were a Trojan horse.
Excellent rant!
Only a very small percentage of muslims would ever turn muslim terrorists in, IMO. The most likely scenario, IMO, is that Lindh gave them up, which is why they aren't charged with treason. Because we need 2 witnesses, these 8 will stick together. I believe Lindh dealt on the treason charge (we certainly could have found more than 2 soldiers who saw him there); but these 8 won't, because there's only Lindh's testimony against them. I don't believe for a moment that "the community" was much, if any, help at all.
the five men had received training at the camp in the use of "Russian assault rifles, handguns and long-range rifles."
While they may have trained in other things too, it sounds like these guys planned to do public massacres, assassinations, and kidnappings as documented in that al-Qaeda training video
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/744321/posts?page=1#34.
My son teaches guitar at a music store in the local mall. That worries me a bit because a lot of his students are adults. It seems to me that a guitar case would provide excellent cover for something like an uzi. People at the mall, including security, are used to seeing guitar students carry their guitar cases in.
Once they are back in the small studio at the rear of the store, my son wouldn't have a chance if a terrorist whipped out a gun instead of a guitar. He could be out in the main mall reeking havoc in a matter of seconds.
If atrocities like that start happening, then the muslim community is going to find out what real harrassment is.
I don't think Al-Qaeda will be carrying Uzis.
I love it!
Every time they have that local girl Daria(?) reporting from Buffalo, she includes "All 5 are registered Democrats"
LOL
A: You can't. You have to wait for the explosion.
I for one am not out to convert anyone to any particular religion. My point is that the world would be much better off if all 1 billion plus Muslims worshipped peacefully, whatever god they choose. It could be a cactus or a parrot for all I care. Worshipping peacefully (vs violent jihad) is the point, wouldn't you agree?
So, in your opinion, I can choose to be a Nazi or a Muslim?
I think you may want to get a grip.I am, and will continue to be a citizen of the USA. A country which has laws against both murder and suicide. I am responcible for my own self defense,period.
My government is constitutionally charged with the military defense of this country as a whole. I have seen no indications of anyone advocating "ovens", except your own statement.
I have no problem with mass deportations of illegal combatants. I will also vebally stand against any private individual I choose too, in personal disapproval of their words and/or actions.Should those individuals protest my disdainfull glare,they are free to do so.If they attempt to direct violence at me,to suppress my freedom of speech,physical self defense is my right and duty.
I dont need an oven to show my disdain for a group of ignorant jerks.In case you have not understood the laws regarding "discrimination", you may want to review them. They apply to official acts, and public commerce domain.I am still free to personally detest and avoid, or glare at, those individuals I think are vile and ignorant.Since I tend to be polite in public, I rarely do this.If I am not treated politely, I see no reason to extend non-reciprocal civilised courtesy.
Not really hard to see the distinction is it?.
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