Five men who worked, lived and socialized together in western New York were schooled in the tools of terror, including the use of suicide as a weapon, in camps run by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, federal officials said.
Federal authorities who announced the arrest of the members of the alleged terror cell said Osama bin Laden himself lectured the men on his anti-American beliefs while they were in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the months leading up to last year's Sept. 11 attacks.
The men came home to Lackawanna, 8km south of Buffalo on the shore of Lake Erie, in June of last year. Federal agents said they had no information the cell was planning an attack in the US.
"We have the key players in western New York," FBI Special Agent in Charge Peter Ahearn said Saturday. He added the investigation was continuing.
The George W. Bush administration hailed the arrests in New York and the capture in Pakistan of a suspected Sept. 11 operative as a victory in the war against terrorism.
The New York men, all in their 20s and of Yemeni descent, appeared in a Buffalo courtroom Saturday in handcuffs and shackles and were charged with unlawfully providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations.
The judge entered a ``not guilty'' plea for each and ordered the men jailed until a detention hearing Wednesday.
Officials said the discovery of the terrorist cell was connected to information that also prompted the Bush administration to raise America's terror alert to ``code orange'' -- the second-highest -- on the eve of the attacks' one-year anniversary.
The investigation into the Lackawanna cell began in early summer of last year, about the time records say the men returned from Afghanistan, and the communications and other activities surrounding the cell intensified this month, said Michael Battle, US attorney for western New York.
"It seemed from all indications that the activity of these five individuals began to move in a number of different directions," Battle said yesterday on CNN. "The evidence pointed us, more importantly, to a particular time, which was this past few days, to make the arrest rather than something particular happening."
He wouldn't give specifics.
According to the criminal complaint unsealed by the judge Saturday, the five New York men -- Shafal Mosed, 24; Faysal Galab, 26; Sahim Alwan, 29; Yasein Taher, 24; and Yahya Goba, 25 -- live within a few blocks of each another in Lackawanna and trained together at a camp in Afghanistan.
FBI Special Agent Edward Needham wrote in the complaint that unindicted co-conspirators told him Goba, Alwan, Mosed and Taher attended al-Qaeda's al-Farooq terror training camp near Kandahar.
It was the same camp John Walker Lindh attended, but officials declined to say if Lindh assisted with the investigation.
Relatives of the men denied they were involved with al-Qaeda.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
RSS