BUFFALO, N.Y., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The six Lackawanna, N.Y., men accused of belonging to a terrorist cell pleaded innocent Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
The charges were originally based on a criminal complaint filed by an FBI agent with the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Western New York on Sept. 13. The next step in the legal process was a grand jury indictment.
Faysal Galab, 26, Shafal Mosed, 24, Yasein Taher, 24, Yahya Goba, 25, Mukhtar al-Bakri, 22, and Sahim Alwan, 29, "together and with others known and unknown to the grand jury, did knowingly and unlawfully combine, conspire, confederate and agree to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, namely al Qaida," the indictment said. If convicted, the men face up to 15 years in prison.
"We didn't expect the government would give us the opportunity to cross-examine even one of their witnesses in a preliminary hearing so we are not surprised at all that they circumvent that opportunity by returning that indictment," said defense attorney Rodney Personius.
The six are accused of attending an Osama bin Laden terrorist training camp in Afghanistan in 2001, and prosecutors assert that that constitutes providing material support to al Qaida under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
"It is our position, as it has always been, that they engaged in activities that are in violation of the statute referenced in the indictment; we submitted the proof," said U.S. Attorney Michael Battle. "The grand jury considered it, the grand jury obviously agreed and returned an indictment."
All of the defendants, with the exception of Alwan, have been ordered held without bail. Alwan is still being detained pending his ability to meet stringent bail conditions by U.S. Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroder Jr.
Alwan had cooperated with the FBI and admitted to federal agents that he and others were in the al Farooq training camp from April to June 2001. He also told agents that he wanted to leave the training camp in Afghanistan but was not allowed to do so. But in his second week there, he faked an ankle injury and was then allowed to leave, he said.
Al-Bakri had also admitted to the FBI that the group had attended al Farooq.
Under the bail conditions, Alwan would be freed, but he must be at home 24 hours a day except for appearances at court, at his job or to seek medical attention. He must not have access to faxes, computers or the Internet. He must pay $20 a day for a global positioning system to monitor his movements by satellite.
"Based on the bail conditions -- he can't use the phone, the Internet or a computer -- we sent him a certified letter last week that he is not able to perform his job requirements under the bail terms so he is no longer employed," Frank Williams, the director of the Iroquois Job Training Center in Medina, N.Y., told United Press International.
James Harrington, Alwan's attorney, said his client's family is still working on getting the $600,000 together for bail.
The men were being investigated in the summer of 2001, before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, after the FBI received information from a member of the Yemeni community in Lackawanna that "a number of individuals had attended and participated in terrorism training in Afghanistan." The six defendants are of Yemeni descent.
The FBI investigated, but the men initially denied going to Afghanistan and said they had gone to Pakistan to learn more about Islam.
The attorneys for the defendants have said that their clients had expected to attend religious training in Islam in Pakistan and were duped into attending the terrorist training camp.
They describe their clients as "good Americans" -- all were born in America -- who had no plans to put anything they may have learned in Afghanistan into practice.
