- LACKAWANNA, NY (UPI)
-- Five Muslim men believed to be an active al Qaida cell were arrested
Friday after months of surveillance in a Buffalo suburb on charges of giving
material support and resources to terrorists.
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- "A federal search warrant was executed by federal
agents within the city of Lackawanna," Officer Daniel Joyce, of the
Lackawanna Police Department, told United Press International. "They
are being held in a federal facility tonight."
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- According to a federal official who did not want to be
identified, the indictment -- which will be unsealed Saturday -- does not
indicate that the five were planning any imminent action. However, law
enforcement personnel believe the men are all graduates of a terrorist
training camp of Osama bin Laden prior to the attacks of Sept. 11.
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- "I've talked personally to the governor and local
FBI agents and I'm told that at no time to the best of our knowledge was
there any threat to any public facility in western New York," said
Erie County Executive Joel Giambra. "As a father of four I can go
home tonight knowing we are safe and have nothing to worry about.
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- The five will be arraigned in federal court in Buffalo
Saturday and they are being held at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
detention facility in Batavia, N.Y., located 30 miles east of Buffalo.
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- The men, whose names have not been released, all lived
within a block of the center of the local Muslin community and all are
said to have attended the Lackawanna Islamic Mosque daily.
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- According to Mohammed Albanna, the head of the Yemini
community in Lackawanna, all five are of Yemini decent and three of the
men were born in Mercy Hospital in Lackawanna. A fourth was born in the
United States and the fifth is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
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- "All I can tell you is, that the information that
was given to the FBI was from the Muslim community and therefore, there
should be no doubt that all members of the Muslim community will do whatever
is possible in our hands to make sure this is investigated to the fullest
extent of the law," said Kahlid Quazi, president of western New York
Muslim community.
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- Several buildings in Lackawanna were searched by federal
agents and at one of them several boxes were removed.
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- Some members of the mosque said they could not believe
the five had anything to do with terrorism but others acknowledged that
some of the five did go overseas for a time.
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- Lackawanna Mayor John Kurynak said he was informed of
the investigation six months ago and he believed the men were under surveillance
for nine months.
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- "I was put in the loop six months ago and it initially
put a shiver down my spine," he said. "Not in my backyard, not
in my city, I thought, but in these times we can't take anything for granted."
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- Lackawanna, a city with a population of about 20,000,
is adjacent to Buffalo and was the home of several steel mills, almost
all of which shut down in the early 1980s putting 30,000 steelworkers out
of work. A Muslim community has existed there for decades.
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- According to security expert, Thomas Diluzio, there have
been prior investigations of possible ties to terrorist activity in western
New York in the late 1990s as a result of wire transfers of money between
the area and the Middle East.
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- "Buffalo is known as an easy access point from Canada
with four bridges and miles of unattended waterways," Diluzio said.
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- One international bridge in Buffalo and three international
bridges in Niagara Falls, N.Y., located 20 miles north of Buffalo, are
the second busiest point of entry from Canada to the United States after
Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
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- The discovery of the cell and the recent spike in their
overseas and internal communications is largely responsible for the federal
government issuing the "Condition Orange" alert earlier this
week, according to CBS News.
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- Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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