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BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) -- 26-year-old Michael J. Abdallah will be heading to court this week for a felony hearing after being accused of holding a runaway teen in his home for six months. Abdallah has been charged with kidnapping and rape, after police say he held a teen captive from July to December of 2009. Police say Abdallah forced the teen to have sex with him, and babysit his one-year-old son. Neighbors of Abdallah are finding the news difficult to believe. Abdallah will be in court for a felony hearing on February 11.

CAPTURED PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT TO A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION; CONSPIRING TO PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT TO A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION JABER A. ELBANEH PHOTOGRAPH OF JABER A. ELBANEH PHOTOGRAPH OF JABER A. ELBANEH TAKEN IN APPROXIMATELY 2000 PHOTOGRAPH OF JABER A. ELBANEH TAKEN IN 1996 Photograph taken in approximately 2000 Photograph taken in 1996 Aliases: Jaber A. Elbanelt, Jaben A. Elbanelt, Jabor Elbaneh, Abu Jubaer, Jubaer Elbaneh, "Jubair" DESCRIPTION Date of Birth Used: September 9, 1966 Hair: Brown Place of Birth: Yemen Eyes: Brown Height: 5'8" Sex: Male Weight: 200 pounds Complexion: Unknown Build: Stocky Citizenship: Yemeni Languages: Arabic, English Scars and Marks:...

23 mins ago WASHINGTON – The Bush administration in 2002 considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo, N.Y., suburb to arrest a group of terror suspects in what would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power, The New York Times reported.

Prosecuting Terror No Choice but Guilty Lackawanna Case Highlights Legal Tilt By Michael Powell Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 29, 2003; Page A01 First of two articles LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -- Even now, after the arrests and the anger and the world media spotlight, the mystery for neighbors in this old steel town remains this: Why would six of their young men so readily agree to plead guilty to terror charges, accepting long prison terms far from home? The reality appears to fall between such disbelief and talk of sleeper cells. Two men who were veterans of the war in...

Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband -- an influential member of the local Muslim community -- reported her death to police Thursday. Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder. "He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead," Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning. Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Three relatives of a man accused of belonging to an al-Qaida terror cell in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna were arrested Tuesday and charged with illegally operating a money transferring business. Investigators have been unable to trace any of the money to terrorist activities, said U.S. Attorney Michael Battle. Mohamed Albanna, 51, a leader in the area's Yemeni community and an uncle of a man still being hunted by U.S. authorities, was seized by Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration agents in the doorway of his Buffalo store, the Queen City Cigarettes and Candy Co. His younger brother,...

Another Lackawanna arrest -Businessman will be charged with sending at least $3 million to Yemen By MICHAEL BEEBE and DAN HERBECK News Staff Reporters 12/17/2002 Federal authorities today are expected to arrest a Lackawanna businessman with ties to the Lackawanna Six on charges that he illegally sent at least $3 million to Yemen over the last several years. The investigation was conducted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Western New York, but sources said investigators have been unable to trace any of the money to terrorist activities. "These transfers have been made illegally and (are) unreported," a law enforcement...

Queen City Cigarettes & Candy, a Clinton Street warehouse owned by food broker Mohamed T. Albanna, is one element of investigators' picture of a money-transmitting business that sent large sums to Yemen. A leader of Lackawanna's Yemeni-American community and two other men were in custody today on charges they operated an illegal money-transmitting business that sent funds from Western New York to Yemen. Mohamed T. Albanna, vice president of the American Muslim Council of Western New York and a frequent spokesman for the defendants known as the "Lackawanna Six," appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott on Tuesday after...

Man of the people - arrested By SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporter 12/18/2002 Mohamed T. Albanna, photographed in his Clinton Street store last July, is considered outspoken on issues crucial to Lackawanna. Business owner Andrea Haxton saw Mohamed T. Albanna several days a week. He was her main cigarette distributor and regularly dropped off boxes at her A&E Goods store on Ridge Road and Ingham Avenue on his way home from work. "He delivers them, we pay him, chit-chat, and he goes home," the Lackawanna business owner said. "We talk about politics all the time." Albanna came by Monday night...

Second N.Y. Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty By CAROLYN THOMPSON .c The Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A second of six Yemeni-American men accused of training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pleaded guilty Monday to charges he supported al-Qaida. Shafal Mosed, 24, entered the plea to a charge of knowingly and unlawfully providing and attempting to provide material resources to a foreign terrorist organization, namely al-Qaida. Under a plea deal, he agreed to cooperate with investigators. In exchange, prosecutors dropped one charge and agreed to seek a lighter sentence of eight years....

LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -- Members of the Yemeni community in this western New York city struggled Saturday to reconcile their identity as a hardworking and vital part of their town with allegations of a terrorist cell in their midst. Yemenis started coming to the Buffalo suburb in 1922, finding work in the steel mills that churned on the Lake Erie shore. They remain a growing part of this city of 20,000. But the community of about 1,000 Yemenis living in Lackawanna has been shaken by the arrests of five men -- all U.S. born -- who federal authorities say aided the...

A search for answers in the case against the Lackawanna SixBy Mark Sommer NEWS BOOK REVIEWER Updated: 09/09/07 6:29 AM The arraignment of the Lackawanna Six attracted national attention. Derek Gee/Buffalo News It was five years ago today that police apprehended the first member of what was quickly dubbed the Lackawanna Six. Headlines blared far beyond Western New York, as news stories raised the specter of homegrown terrorists training with al-Qaida in southern Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, it would later be revealed, was present, too. President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller quickly proclaimed the Lackawanna...

<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A second of six Yemeni-American men accused of training at an al-Qaida camp months before the Sept. 11 attacks pleaded guilty Monday to supporting a foreign terrorist organization.</p> <p>In a plea deal with the government, Shafal Mosed admitted attending the camp in Afghanistan from April to June 2001, where he received weapons and tactical training, performed guard duty and heard Osama bin Laden speak about "50 men who were on a suicide mission."</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — A Yemeni-American killed in a CIA airstrike in Yemen has links to alleged members of the al-Qaeda cell in suburban Buffalo, that was raided by U.S. authorities in September, a U.S. government official said Friday.</p> <p>The man, identified by Yemeni officials as Ahmed Hijazi, is a U.S. citizen, U.S. and Yemeni officials said on condition of anonymity.</p>

Original Article: Accused Terrorist on Trial in Jordan Attended Classes at Sac State; Initiation to Terrorism May Have Started in Sacramento, According to Published Reports. Layla Bohm State Hornet (Student Newspaper) November 27, 2001 Former Sacramento State student Raed Hijazi at his trial in Jordan Nov. 26. Hijazi pleaded innocent to nine charges stemming from a plot to execute terrorist attacks on America and Israel during Millenium celebrations in December 1999. Courtesy Photo/A He was a typical California student. Born in San Jose Dec. 3, 1968, Raed Hijazi eventually attended Sacramento City College, took a Sacramento State extension course...

<p>LACKAWANNA, N.Y. (AP) -- Ahmed al-Bakri shakes his head and looks down when asked about his brother. Sharifa Galab speaks haltingly through a window about her son. At other homes, doorbells go unanswered even as eyes peer from windows.</p> <p>Relatives of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" and others who live here push away uncomfortable memories of last September, when agents swarmed to round up young men on terrorism charges in the shadow of Sept. 11, 2001, remembrances. But the case is not ready to fade away.</p>

They've interviewed people, followed people, arrested people and even, some say, directed planes to fly ceaselessly over the city. There is little doubt the FBI has been a powerful presence in Lodi in the days since the arrest of several local Muslims in what has been termed a terror investigation. Two former Lodi imams were also arrested on immigration charges: Shabbir Ahmed, 35, and Mohammad Adil Khan, 47, and Khan's son, Mohammad Hassan Adil, 19. Adil Khan and his son have agreed to be deported rather than face federal charges. The arrest drew a boisterous legion of media -- and...

NEW YORK -- The last member of a group of Yemeni-American men from western New York sought by U.S. authorities for attending an al-Qaeda training camp has been taken into custody in Yemen, according to a newspaper report. Jaber Elbaneh was being held by Yemeni authorities, and negotiations are under way for extradition, The New York Times reported in a story for Thursday editions, citing unidentified officials in Yemen and the United States. Six men from Lackawanna pleaded guilty last year to aiding a terrorist organization by attending the camp in Afghanistan in 2001. In December, 31-year-old Sahim Alwan was...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - An American wanted for allegedly training with the "Lackawanna Six" at an al-Qaida camp was among the 23 men who tunneled out of a Yemeni prison last week, the FBI confirmed Friday. Authorities earlier said they believed Jaber Elbaneh, 39, was probably among the escapees, but were not certain because of conflicting information, including a posting by the international police organization Interpol that pictured Elbaneh but described someone else. Elbaneh is charged in Buffalo with providing material support to al-Qaida by attending the al-Farooq training camp run by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan months before the Sept....

http://www.pbase.com/alqaeda/hunt

Officials Looking For Group's Co-Conspirators Posted: 10:04 a.m. EDT September 15, 2002 BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Five suspected al-Qaida associates arrested in western New York on Friday have been under investigation for more than a year. U.S. Attorney Michael Battle said the investigation into the alleged terror cell near Buffalo began early in the summer of 2001. Battle also told CNN that investigators had been tracking similar activity in Detroit and Seattle -- but he didn't elaborate. The five men (pictured) are all in their 20s and of Yemeni descent. They have been identified as Shafal Mosed, 24; Faysal Galab, 26;...

FORT BLISS, Texas - A man once considered a top al-Qaida operative escaped from a U.S.-run detention facility in Afghanistan and cannot testify against the soldier who allegedly mistreated him, a defense lawyer involved in a prison abuse case said Tuesday. Omar al-Farouq was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in the summer of 2002 and turned him over to the United States. A Pentagon official in Washington confirmed Tuesday evening that al-Farouq escaped from a U.S. detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, on July 10. The official spoke on condition of...

The war on terrorism reached into the Buffalo community Friday evening, when federal agents raided several houses and a store in Lackawanna and accused five men of Yemeni descent of operating an al-Qaida cell. The normally quiet neighborhood of modest homes and narrow streets was overrun by gun-toting police and FBI agents who ended a year-old probe with the arrests of the five men, all accused of providing material support and resources to the al-Qaida network. Disbelieving residents poured into the streets as darkness fell, and authorities searched apartments and cars before taking the suspects into custody, then cordoning off...

(CNN) -- Two men tried to re-enter Canada from the United States early Saturday with handguns and ammunition strapped to their bodies, Canadian police said. Ali Dirie, 22, and Yasin Mohamed, 23 -- both Canadians from the Toronto area -- face weapons-related charges and are in police custody in Niagara Falls, Ontario, according to a police statement. Ontario's Provincial Weapons Enforcement Team and the Niagara Regional Police Service are investigating.

Two men tried to re-enter Canada from the United States early Saturday with handguns and ammunition strapped to their bodies, Canadian police said. Ali Dirie, 22, and Yasin Mohamed, 23 -- both Canadians from the Toronto area -- face weapons-related charges and are in police custody in Niagara Falls, Ontario, according to a police statement. Ontario's Provincial Weapons Enforcement Team and the Niagara Regional Police Service are investigating. Detective Sgt. Shawn Clarkson, of the Niagara Regional Police Service, would not say what led border officers to search the men. The men's vehicle underwent a routine search at about 5:40 a.m....

Osama bin Laden declared before September 11 that there "is going to be a fight against Americans", at an Afghan training camp attended by suspected members of a New York terror cell, prosecutors said in court papers.   The papers, in the case involving six suspected terrorists in Lackawanna, said none of the men could give details regarding any of the mosques or schools that they visited for what they said was religious training in Pakistan.   The government documents, filed in federal court in Buffalo, New York, ask that the six men continue to be held without bail....

FBI Charges 7th N.Y. Terror Cell Suspect Email this Story May 21, 3:55 PM (ET) (AP) Jaber A. Elbaneh, 36, of Lackawanna, N.Y., is shown in these two photos released by the FBI... Full Image BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A seventh man was charged Wednesday with participating in a terrorist "sleeper" cell based in upstate New York by attending an al-Qaida training camp run by Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks. An FBI criminal complaint charged Jaber Elbaneh, 36, with conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. Elbaneh is believed to be abroad,...

<p>BUFFALO (AP) — A New York man accused of attending an al-Qaeda training camp recounted his one-on-one meeting with Osama bin Laden in court documents defense attorneys hope will fend off prosecutors' attempts to keep him jailed for failing to disclose the encounter earlier.</p>

The U.S. citizen killed by a missile launched from a pilotless drone aircraft over Yemen was the ringleader of an alleged terrorist sleeper cell in Lackawanna, N.Y., administration officials said yesterday. Kamal Derwish, one of two unindicted co-conspirators in the Lackawanna case, died along with the intended target of the attack, senior al Qaeda leader Abu Ali al-Harithi, who is accused of masterminding the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in which 17 sailors died. These two men and four others were traveling in a car outside the Yemeni capital of Sanaa when they were hit by a Hellfire...

Overviews of Al-Bakri offer sharp contrast By CHARITY VOGEL and DAN HERBECK News Staff Reporters 9/17/2002 Those who know Mukhtar al-Bakri say he is a man who was turning his life around. The 22-year-old Yemenite-American, a former Lackawanna High School student, had no money and no steady job for more than a year, but he traveled to the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain to meet and marry a Muslim woman in an arranged wedding, his family members said Monday. Federal agents, however, have a grimmer view of what al-Bakri was up to in Bahrain. Based on a phone call from...

Bail for terror suspect Sahim Alwan set at $600,000...

John Walker Lindh John Walker Lindh had a key role in busting an alleged Buffalo-area terror cell, helping the FBI connect its members to an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, the Daily News has learned. A source told The News that Lindh - who agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for a lighter sentence on terror-related charges - was asked about the alleged terrorist cell in upstate Lackawanna after authorities ran into a dead end. The FBI had gotten a letter in June 2001 from a "concerned Yemenite" alleging that eight U.S. citizens of Yemeni descent were...

ACKAWANNA, N.Y., Sept 15 — The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested a sixth man of Yemeni descent, family and friends said here tonight, in addition to the five young American citizens charged Saturday with providing "material support" for Qaeda terrorists.The new suspect, whose family said he was arrested in the Gulf emirate of Bahrain as he prepared for his arranged marriage there, was identified as Mukhtar al-Bakri, who lived near the other young men in the Yemeni community of this fading steel town. A federal official confirmed that a sixth arrest had been made and said it was...

Or so it's being reported on Fox

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — Five Arab-American men charged today with operating an active Al Qaeda terrorist cell in western New York received weapons training in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001 and had been sent back to the United States to await the order for an attack on American targets, federal law enforcement officials said today. The five suspects, all of them born in the United States and of Yemeni descent, were arraigned today in Buffalo on federal charges of providing "material support" to terrorists. They were arrested on Friday night in raids on their homes and businesses in Lackawanna,...