Feds Cant Confirm Elbanegh in Custody
Thats odd. You would think the regime would let some US official come take a peek at him. He is a US citizen after all. Kinda reminds me of when the regime turned down the US offer of forensic assistance after the thwarted bombings when the bodies of the bombers who were escaped prisoners were “strewn all over” according to the Interior Minister.
So the year of negotiation paid off in the end. I wonder how the talks with al-Reimi and al-Badawi are coming.
WASHINGTON (AP) - 1 of the FBI’s most-sought terrorism suspects has surrendered to authorities in Yemen, more than a year after tunneling out of a prison there.
That’s according to a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy today.
Jaber A. Elbaneh lived in Lackawanna, New York, before leaving to train at Osama bin Laden’s al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan in 2001. That’s according to a federal indictment in Buffalo.
6 of his traveling companions - dubbed the “Lackawanna Six” - returned to the United States and were arrested in September 2002.
Authorities believe Elbaneh never returned to the United States and instead traveled to his native Yemen to live with his wife and children.
A spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Elbaneh had surrendered.
The FBI can not confirm that Elbaneh is in custody.
They sound a little dubious. “We certainly do hope he is caught,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday according to the AP.
The Yemen Times reported that, “As a condition for their surrender, security authorities said they wouldn’t prolong the sentences leveled against the two suspects, the newspaper (Ray News) added.” So what does this mean for Elbanegh who was never charged or tried in Yemen? Several of the escaped prisoners who previously surrendered were released immediately.
The Elbaneh Rewards for Justice page is still up and a round-up.
