"Buffalo men charged with aiding terrorists
September 14, 2002 Posted: 2:49 PM EDT (1849 GMT)

BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- Five men arrested Friday night in a raid on an apartment complex in a Buffalo, New York, suburb were indicted on charges of providing material support to terrorists, the Justice Department announced Saturday.

Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said the men all trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and said the arrests "disrupted an al Qaeda-trained terrorist cell on American soil." He said John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban, trained at the same camp.

The men were arraigned Saturday afternoon in a Buffalo federal courthouse.

FBI agents arrested the five men -- all U.S. citizens -- in a raid on an apartment building in Lackawanna, a city of 20,000 people just south of Buffalo, arresting suspects and carrying off boxes of evidence.

If convicted of the charges, the men could face up to 15 years in prison.




FBI Director Robert Mueller said there was no evidence that the men were planning any attacks.

"We do not fully know the intentions of those charged today," Mueller said.

Earlier, Mayor John Kuryak said he had been informed about six months ago that federal officials were investigating possible terrorists in his city.

Kuryak said his first reaction upon hearing the news was "disbelief."

"We just want to reassure everybody in the city that they're safe," he said.

Thompson and Mueller said that members of Lackawanna's Muslim community provided "extraordinary cooperation" to their investigation.

The bust comes on the heels of the capture of Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the al Qaeda operatives most wanted by the U.S. government. Pakistani officials said they are questioning the Yemeni-born Binalshibh. (Full story)

Binalshibh recently acknowledged playing a role in the planning of the September 11 terrorist hijackings. In an audio message played Thursday on the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera, Binalshibh said he had hoped to be one of the hijackers but could not obtain an entry visa into the United States. (Full story)"

http://www.cnn.com/2002/U...index.html

P.S. This is kinda close 2 where I used 2 live.

I think the important thing is that other Muslims tipped the feds off. That kind of support will help dismiss some of the negative stereotypes associated with Arab Americans.

ohh yeah, this was done by the aid of Pakistan...who themselves have been tied to terrorist attacks...


wonder what bush thinks of *that*...

or better yet, I wonder what Saddam thinks of *that*...

SkletonKee said:

Or better yet, I wonder what soulpower thinks of *that*...

i was starting 2 think that the arab-americans were getting a bad rap from 9/11,but now that i read this post i'm retracting my initial thoughts & going with good for them tipping off the agents & helping restore their good name...one other thing to add the main guy that got arrested (can't remember his name...starts with a "B")was roomates with mohammed atta.one of the terrorists involved with hijacking the planes on 9/11.if i'm not mistaken he was on one of the planes that hit the WTC. god bless those who were killed on that tragic day and god bless us all. AMEN

p.s. sorry for seeming all religious y'all just keepin' it real & from the heart.

2the9s said:

Soulpower thinks its great that Binalshibh is busted. german intelligence has been long after him since that guy had planned everything in hamburg. but they have failed, so did the US. I do believe that pakistan only got him because of their ties to the terrorists... especially since he was interviewed on TV and it was obvious that he was hiding in pakistan... so the government HAD to to something about him..but thats just speculation. could be totally different. we'll probably never know.
[This message was edited Sun Sep 15 3:59:49 PDT 2002 by soulpower]

ThaHumanBody said:

Binalshibh was indeed roomates with atta (pilot of plane one) in hamburg's marienstrasse until 2000. atta was the head of the cell, binalshib was supossed to be flying one of the plnes as well, but he didnt get a visa for the US although he had tried 4 times.