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U.S. probes terror ties of Buffalo suspects
BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- Authorities are investigating whether five Buffalo, New York-area men accused of forming an al Qaeda-trained terrorist cell have connections to similar cases in other states, a federal prosecutor said Sunday. "There are at least two other similar investigations, one in Detroit and one in Seattle, which has recently been concluded, that shows similar type activity," said Michael Battle, U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York. The suspects -- Yahya Goba, 25; Sahim Alwan, 29; Shafal Mosed, 24; Yasein Taher, 24; and Faysal Galab, 26 -- were in federal custody awaiting a Wednesday bond hearing. All are Americans of Yemeni descent, FBI Special Agent Peter Ahearn said. The five appeared Saturday in U.S. District Court in Buffalo and were charged with one count each of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, the men face as many as 15 years in prison, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Larry Thompson said. A federal magistrate entered not guilty pleas on the men's behalf because none had legal counsel at the time. Three of the men had obtained representation by Saturday evening.
Alwan's attorney said Sunday he does not believe the government has a case. "There's a definition in the statutes of what providing material resources and support is, and anything that's alleged in the complaint does not fit within that definition," attorney Jim Harrington told CNN. "This is going to be a difficult legal case, I think." Harrington said Alwan is married with three children and works as a counselor for troubled youth. He called his client "respectful" and "polite." The suspects lived within blocks of one another in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna, a former steel town of 19,000 with a large Yemeni community. "What it was that they may have been waiting to or waiting for, we can't comment on at this particular time," Ahearn said. In August, the government charged four men in Detroit, Michigan, with planning attacks on targets in the United States, Jordan and Turkey; and a Muslim activist in Seattle, Washington, James Ujaama, has been charged with conspiring to set up an al Qaeda training camp in the Pacific Northwest. Battle said the suspects in the Lackawanna case "engaged in similar activity" to suspects in the Detroit and Seattle cases but added, "Our investigation of whether there are any other links continues at this time." "One of the things that makes this crew somewhat unique is that they're American-born citizens. That tells us a little bit more about what's going on in our country," he said. Government sources said the men had been under investigation since before the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Authorities moved to arrest them because of an "increase of chatter from this group and the gravity of what they were saying," one source said. Battle said the investigation began after members of the Muslim community in the Buffalo area raised concerns about the men. "The people in that community were very aware of certain individuals connected to the five people that we have under arrest, engaging in sophisticated activity, traveling and things of that nature," he said. The federal prosecutor said the men trained in an al Qaeda camp near Kandahar at the same time as John Walker Lindh, the California man captured fighting with Taliban forces in Afghanistan last year. At one point during the men's stay, the criminal complaint alleges, Osama bin Laden gave a speech to the trainees about the alliance of the Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda, "espousing anti-United States and anti-Israel statements," according to court papers. Friends and relatives of five men expressed disbelief Sunday at the charges against the men. "It's all a big misunderstanding," said Aibn Mosed, whose 24-year-old brother, Shafal, is one of those arrested. "I know it is, because I talk to my brother about everything. He'll tell me anything. He wouldn't hide nothing from me, because I wouldn't hide nothing from him." CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken contributed to this report.
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