Ben Dobbin
U.S. Knew of Terror Cell Before 9/11
Sat Sep 21 19:01:27 2002
208.152.73.193

washingtonpost.com

U.S. Knew of Terror Cell Before 9/11
Probe of Men Began After Return From Afghanistan in 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22209-2002Sep15?language=printer

By Ben Dobbin
Associated Press
Monday, September 16, 2002; Page A08

BUFFALO, Sept. 15 -- An alleged terrorist cell based in western New York and
trained by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network was on the U.S. government's
radar before the Sept. 11 attacks, a prosecutor said today.

The investigation into the Lackawanna cell began early in the summer of 2001,
about the time that the men returned from Afghanistan, said Michael Battle,
U.S. attorney for western New York. All five were born in the United States
and of Yemeni descent.

"What essentially happened is that information came to our attention that
pointed us in the direction of these individuals," Battle said.

He declined to comment on specifics, but he said law enforcement officials
ook investigative steps to corroborate the information.

"It was based upon that corroboration that we began to look a little deeper,"
Battle said.

He said the communications and other activities surrounding the cell
intensified this month.

Federal authorities who announced the arrest of the members of the alleged
terror cell said bin Laden had lectured the men on his anti-American beliefs
while they were in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the months before Sept. 11.

The men came home to Lackawanna, five miles south of Buffalo on Lake Erie,
in June 2001. Federal agents said there was no indication that the cell was
planning an attack in the United States.

Relatives of the men have denied they were involved with al Qaeda.

Officials said the discovery of the terrorist cell was related to information
that prompted the Bush administration to raise America's terror alert to
"code orange" -- the second-highest -- on the eve of the one-year anniversary
of the Sept. 11 attacks.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Peter Ahearn said Saturday that the
investigation was continuing but that authorities believe the key
figures in western New York have been caught.

The men were charged Saturday with providing material support and r
esources to foreign terrorist organizations.

According to the criminal complaint, the five men -- Shafal Mosed, 24;
Faysal Galab, 26; Sahim Alwan, 29; Yasein Taher, 24; and Yahya Goba, 25
-- live within a few blocks of one another in Lackawanna and trained
together at a camp in Afghanistan.

"At this point in time, we're not sure they have, in fact, committed a
crime, regardless of any conduct they might have been engaged in,"
James Harrington, a court-appointed lawyer for Alwan, told CNN.

Ahearn characterized the group as a cell trained by al Qaeda. "They worked
together, they socialized together, they lived within
blocks of each other," Ahearn said.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company