Area terror cell numbered 8, agent says
By Dan Herbeck
Updated: 06/22/08 7:57 AM
Although they were known as the “Lackawanna Six,” the group of Buffalo- area men who trained at Osama bin Laden’s terrorist camp in Afghanistan actually numbered eight — and could have grown to 12, according to the former FBI agent who headed the investigation.
The seventh man was Kamal Derwish, killed by a CIA missile attack in Yemen in 2002.
The eighth is Jaber A. Elbaneh, now facing charges in Yemen.
He’s the one that retired FBI agent Peter J. Ahearn is especially interested in, because he considers Elbaneh to be a “dangerous, hardened” terrorist who should have been sent back to America by Yemen’s government years ago. In fact, the U. S. government continues to offer a $5 million reward for his capture and return to Buffalo.
“The government of Yemen is our partner in the war on terrorism, but only when they want to be,” said Ahearn, former special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI office. “I can’t see [Elbaneh] ever being brought back to Buffalo . . . even though he’s supposedly being held in a Yemen jail right now.”
Ahearn also said that the FBI learned during its original investigation that a second group of at least four Muslim-American men from the Buffalo area was preparing to travel to an al-Qaida terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, but the men changed their minds after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Ahearn, now 53, was in charge of the Buffalo FBI office in September 2002, when agents arrested six Lackawanna men who had traveled to Afghanistan to meet Osama bin Laden and train with the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Retired from the FBI since 2006, Ahearn remains especially interested in the saga of Elbaneh, a former Lackawanna factory worker whom the U. S. government considers one of the world’s most wanted terrorism suspects.
Elbaneh, 41, faces federal charges in Buffalo for allegedly being part of the group of Lackawanna men who trained with al-Qaida.
Ahearn shed some new light on the Lackawanna case and other matters during a recent interview with The Buffalo News. Among his other points:
• He said he is baffled as to why the U. S. government never criminally prosecuted the man who traveled to Lackawanna to recruit the men for al-Qaida. That recruiter, Juma Muhammed Abdul Latif Al Dosari, “is walking around as a free man in Saudi Arabia,” Ahearn said.
• He is convinced the Lackawanna case was part of a concerted effort by al-Qaida to recruit young American citizens to take part in terror attacks in America, and he believes that recruitment effort is still under way.
“What we learned from that case is that al-Qaida had recruiters in America, looking for young American citizens that they could send overseas to train as terrorists. And then, they would return to our country,” Ahearn said. “That’s a scary thought . . . I think this effort is still going on, but it’s gone underground.”
Ahearn did not provide much detail about the four other potential al-Qaida trainees, except to say that they were all from the Lackawanna area and that the FBI believed local businessmen were providing all or part of the funding for the trips.
Ahearn doubts that any of the men ever intended to do harm to Americans, but he fears that al-Qaida terrorists might have someday forced the men into taking part in something against their will. Although he still keeps in contact with police officials in Buffalo, Ahearn now lives near Washington, D. C., where he works as an intelligence consultant to private companies and government agencies.
He served for two years as a senior adviser to the director of national intelligence before starting his own business in April.
FBI agents have called Elbaneh a “dangerous individual” because he trained with al-Qaida and had face-to-face meetings with bin Laden, whom the U. S. government considers the most dangerous terrorist in the world. They also say he was the right-hand man to the late Kamal Derwish, the Lackawanna man who was trying to recruit al-Qaida suicide bombers in the
U. S.
“That guy, Elbaneh, when he
went over to Afghanistan, he knew he was not coming back,” Ahearn said. “He’s a dangerous man. I would not want to see him back in this country, except in handcuffs.”
The Associated Press in Yemen reported on June 4 that Elbaneh is in a Yemen jail, facing a 10-year prison term after being convicted of conspiring to attack oil businesses in Yemen. The news agency said he is appealing that sentence.
Ahearn said he will be surprised if Elbaneh serves the 10- year sentence and even more surprised if he is ever returned to Buffalo to face prosecution in the Lackawanna case.
“There are a lot of factions in Yemen, some of whom would condemn the president of Yemen if he ever sent Elbaneh back to the U. S.,” Ahearn said. “I’d like to see it, but I’m very pessimistic and skeptical.”
Although Elbaneh has been in police custody several times in Yemen since 2006, that country has refused to send him to America to face prosecution. He escaped from a high-security prison in Yemen in 2006, tunneling from the prison to a nearby mosque with 21 other men, many of whom were reported by police to have al-Qaida ties.
Ahearn said there is little doubt in his mind that Al Dosari was sent to the United States to recruit for al-Qaida. He said he strongly felt that Al Dosari should have been prosecuted in Buffalo for helping to recruit the Lackawanna men.
“We felt strongly that we could try him in Buffalo on criminal charges, but the Justice Department declined,” Ahearn said.
According to court papers, Al Dosari was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001 and held for years at the government prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After several suicide attempts, Al Dosari was released to Saudi Arabia about eight months ago, Ahearn said.
Ahearn said he never found out why no criminal case was brought against Al Dosari. According to court papers, Al Dosari admitted giving a “fiery speech” in a Lackawanna mosque but denied recruiting anyone for al-Qaida.
Some of Ahearn’s comments were surprising to Dr. Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, and Ahmed M. Jamil, 79, a Yemen native who has long been active in Lackawanna’s Muslim-American community.
Both men said they never heard that anyone else in Lackawanna was ever considering a trip to the al-Qaida camp.
And Ahearn’s contention that Elbaneh is a dangerous terrorist drew an emotional response from Jamil, who knows Elbaneh’s family and considers him a peaceful and deeply religious man.
“Put my head under the sword if [Elbaneh] has any trace of terrorism in him,” Jamil said.
