Free Republic

CAPTURED PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT TO A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION; CONSPIRING TO PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT TO A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION JABER A. ELBANEH PHOTOGRAPH OF JABER A. ELBANEH PHOTOGRAPH OF JABER A. ELBANEH TAKEN IN APPROXIMATELY 2000 PHOTOGRAPH OF JABER A. ELBANEH TAKEN IN 1996 Photograph taken in approximately 2000 Photograph taken in 1996 Aliases: Jaber A. Elbanelt, Jaben A. Elbanelt, Jabor Elbaneh, Abu Jubaer, Jubaer Elbaneh, "Jubair" DESCRIPTION Date of Birth Used: September 9, 1966 Hair: Brown Place of Birth: Yemen Eyes: Brown Height: 5'8" Sex: Male Weight: 200 pounds Complexion: Unknown Build: Stocky Citizenship: Yemeni Languages: Arabic, English Scars and Marks:...

The Bush administration in 2002 considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo, New York, suburb to arrest a group of terror suspects, the New York Times reported. WASHINGTON - The Bush administration in 2002 considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo, New York, suburb to arrest a group of terror suspects in what would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power within the United States, The New York Times reported. Vice President Dick Cheney and several other Bush advisers at the time strongly urged that the military be used to apprehend men who were suspected of plotting with...

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration in 2002 considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo, N.Y., suburb to arrest a group of terror suspects in what would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power, The New York Times reported. Vice President Dick Cheney and several other Bush advisers at the time strongly urged that the military be used to apprehend men who were suspected of plotting with al Qaida, who later became known as the Lackawanna Six, the Times reported on its Web site Friday night. It cited former administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON — Top Bush administration officials in 2002 debated testing the Constitution by sending American troops into the suburbs of Buffalo to arrest a group of men suspected of plotting with Al Qaeda, according to former administration officials. Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants. Mr. Bush ultimately decided against the proposal to use military force. A decision to...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

Note: Photos included. FOCUS:TERRORISM SNIPPET: "Faysal H. Galab, the first to take a plea deal, received the shortest sentence, seven years, and is now out of federal custody and living in the Detroit area under his own name. Shafal A. Mosed is out of prison and in a federal halfway house in Rochester working as a day laborer. He plans to move back to Lackawanna and rejoin his wife and child in September, according to members of the Yemenite community in Lackawanna. His brother, who refused to speak about Mosed’s upcoming return, pointed out that Galab has managed to succeed...

(CNN) -- Eighteen-year-old Susan El-Baneh and her husband of three weeks died holding hands, her brother said, victims of a terrorist attack Wednesday on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.

Even though we know yesterday's Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen were targeted at Americans and America, it's ironic that the only American who died was a relative of Jaber El-Baneh, the fugitive seventh member of the Lackawanna Six Al-Qaeda terrorists--homegrown terrorists in Suburban Buffalo. I've written about Jaber El-Baneh--who, in 2005, was allowed to escape a Yemeni prison by Yemeni police and prison guards and who has never faced justice in America for training to foment terrorist attacks on our soil. Mr. El-Baneh trained at the Al-Farooq terrorist training camp run by Osama Bin Laden...

SAN`A, Yemen - A Yemeni-American who is among the FBI's most wanted terrorism suspects appeared in a Yemeni court Saturday and then walked free, an eyewitness said. Jaber Elbaneh, 41, attended a session of the trial for him and 22 others charged in connection with a series of attacks on oil facilities. "He entered the courtroom surrounded by four bodyguards, introduced himself to the judge then he left," an eyewitness said speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. Footage of Elbaneh entering and leaving the court unimpeded also appeared on the Dubai-based pan-Arab satellite channel, al-Arabiya. Security authorities...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — A Yemeni-American killed in a CIA airstrike in Yemen has links to alleged members of the al-Qaeda cell in suburban Buffalo, that was raided by U.S. authorities in September, a U.S. government official said Friday.</p> <p>The man, identified by Yemeni officials as Ahmed Hijazi, is a U.S. citizen, U.S. and Yemeni officials said on condition of anonymity.</p>

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Three relatives of a man accused of belonging to an al-Qaida terror cell in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna were arrested Tuesday and charged with illegally operating a money transferring business. Investigators have been unable to trace any of the money to terrorist activities, said U.S. Attorney Michael Battle. Mohamed Albanna, 51, a leader in the area's Yemeni community and an uncle of a man still being hunted by U.S. authorities, was seized by Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration agents in the doorway of his Buffalo store, the Queen City Cigarettes and Candy Co. His younger brother,...

Another Lackawanna arrest -Businessman will be charged with sending at least $3 million to Yemen By MICHAEL BEEBE and DAN HERBECK News Staff Reporters 12/17/2002 Federal authorities today are expected to arrest a Lackawanna businessman with ties to the Lackawanna Six on charges that he illegally sent at least $3 million to Yemen over the last several years. The investigation was conducted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Western New York, but sources said investigators have been unable to trace any of the money to terrorist activities. "These transfers have been made illegally and (are) unreported," a law enforcement...

Queen City Cigarettes & Candy, a Clinton Street warehouse owned by food broker Mohamed T. Albanna, is one element of investigators' picture of a money-transmitting business that sent large sums to Yemen. A leader of Lackawanna's Yemeni-American community and two other men were in custody today on charges they operated an illegal money-transmitting business that sent funds from Western New York to Yemen. Mohamed T. Albanna, vice president of the American Muslim Council of Western New York and a frequent spokesman for the defendants known as the "Lackawanna Six," appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott on Tuesday after...

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...

The U.S. citizen killed by a missile launched from a pilotless drone aircraft over Yemen was the ringleader of an alleged terrorist sleeper cell in Lackawanna, N.Y., administration officials said yesterday. Kamal Derwish, one of two unindicted co-conspirators in the Lackawanna case, died along with the intended target of the attack, senior al Qaeda leader Abu Ali al-Harithi, who is accused of masterminding the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in which 17 sailors died. These two men and four others were traveling in a car outside the Yemeni capital of Sanaa when they were hit by a Hellfire...

<p>BUFFALO (AP) — A New York man accused of attending an al-Qaeda training camp recounted his one-on-one meeting with Osama bin Laden in court documents defense attorneys hope will fend off prosecutors' attempts to keep him jailed for failing to disclose the encounter earlier.</p>

<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A second of six Yemeni-American men accused of training at an al-Qaida camp months before the Sept. 11 attacks pleaded guilty Monday to supporting a foreign terrorist organization.</p> <p>In a plea deal with the government, Shafal Mosed admitted attending the camp in Afghanistan from April to June 2001, where he received weapons and tactical training, performed guard duty and heard Osama bin Laden speak about "50 men who were on a suicide mission."</p>

Second N.Y. Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty By CAROLYN THOMPSON .c The Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A second of six Yemeni-American men accused of training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pleaded guilty Monday to charges he supported al-Qaida. Shafal Mosed, 24, entered the plea to a charge of knowingly and unlawfully providing and attempting to provide material resources to a foreign terrorist organization, namely al-Qaida. Under a plea deal, he agreed to cooperate with investigators. In exchange, prosecutors dropped one charge and agreed to seek a lighter sentence of eight years....

A search for answers in the case against the Lackawanna SixBy Mark Sommer NEWS BOOK REVIEWER Updated: 09/09/07 6:29 AM The arraignment of the Lackawanna Six attracted national attention. Derek Gee/Buffalo News It was five years ago today that police apprehended the first member of what was quickly dubbed the Lackawanna Six. Headlines blared far beyond Western New York, as news stories raised the specter of homegrown terrorists training with al-Qaida in southern Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, it would later be revealed, was present, too. President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller quickly proclaimed the Lackawanna...

SANAA, May 24 (Reuters) - A Yemeni-American al Qaeda militant, thought to be a key figure in the fatal bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in 2000, is back behind bars after a mass jail breakout last year, Yemen's interior minister said. Jaber Elbaneh, a key al Qaeda leader, was one of the 23 inmates who tunnelled out of jail in the capital, Sanaa in February 2006, Rshad al-Alimi told reporters on Thursday. He said the inmate gave himself up two days ago. Yemen says Elbaneh was also one of the masterminds of the 2002 attack on the French supertanker...