Yemen’s Catch and Release Program
NPR is talking about Jaber Albaneh here and brings in the Lackawanna connection and Yemen’s obstruction of the FBI. Its a good article missing only that Ali A. al-Banna (Jaber’s uncle) was convicted of sending money from one of the Lackawanna six to Yemeni-American Derwish in Yemen who was later killed sitting next to al-Qaeda chief al-Harthi in a hellfire missle attack in 2002. The uncle admitted in his 2006 plea agreement that he used false names in registering the transaction. In total, millions were sent to Yemen.
NPR: “He’s on FBI.gov and there is a picture and a wanted poster of him,” said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko. “He’s been in Yemen, and several months ago he escaped from jail and there were reports last week that he was back in jail and we haven’t confirmed his status at this point.”
The FBI isn’t confirming that Elbaneh is behind bars because of an odd dance they have had to do with the Yemeni authorities. Working with officials in Yemen has been hit or miss. They will report they have a terrorist fugitive in prison one day, and then he will be gone the next, he said.
One former law enforcement official familiar with the case said that Elbaneh’s arrest in Yemen is like a “catch and release program,” because he has been arrested and then released on numerous occasions.
Elbaneh was in Yemen’s maximum security prison last year when he escaped. He and two dozen prisoners dug a tunnel out of the facility and emerged from under the women’s bathroom floor of a nearby mosque and disappeared. Among the people thought to have escaped with him were masterminds of the USS Cole bombing in Aden, Yemen, which took the lives of more than a dozen U.S. servicemen and blew a house-sized hole into the American destroyer.
“Elbaneh had been on the lam for quite a while,” Kolko said. “We have a legal attache that is stationed in Yemen and she will work with the local authorities there to try to determine Elbaneh’s current status and we’ll have to go from there.”
There is a great deal of interest in the Lackawanna Six because they have been a marquee case for the Bush administration and its war on terror. When officials talk about battlefield successes, Lackawanna is always in that list.
The FBI learned about the Lackawanna Six by sheer luck: they received an anonymous letter from someone in the Yemeni-American community who knew the Lackawanna Six had gone to Afghanistan to train at the al Qaida camp. The FBI began tracking the men from the moment they returned, just months before the 911 attacks.
They watched them for a year hoping, among other things, that Elbaneh and the man who recruited the participants, Kamel Derwish, would return. Neither man came back. The FBI finally arrested the group in the States and charged them with material support of a terrorist organization. Some observers say the men never planned anything against the United States, but were arrested for political reasons.
“The greatest significance of that case was the timing,” said Rodney Personius, one of the defense attorneys for the Lackawanna Six. “The arrest took place on the one year anniversary after 9-11 and the case was used by the Bush administration as evidence that, in their words, they were winning the war on terrorism.”
The FBI is eager to apprehend Elbaneh, though the organization doesn’t think he will shed any more light on the Lackawanna Six case. The men who were charged already admitted that they attended the camp in Afghanistan and even met Osama bin Laden. They also provided information about their recruitment and details about the camps themselves and pleaded guilty to the charges. They are now serving between 7 and 10 years in prison.
What Jaber Elbaneh may provide, analysts say, is a goldmine of information on what happened after the Lackawanna Six came home. Elbaneh’s time in Yemen could provide clues into recruitment and al Qaida training. “He may have gone back to Yemen and stayed in Yemen to do things that the group in New York were not doing,” said Tom Sanderson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Of course, the FBI needs the Yemeni government to hand over Elbaneh first.
Update: ABC: Elbaneh under house arrest
One of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists has been placed under “house arrest” in Yemen, according to U.S. counterterrorism and federal law enforcement officials.
Jaber Elbaneh, an alleged al Qaeda operative with ties to the Buffalo, N.Y., “Lackawanna six” terrorism case, reportedly surrendered to Yemeni security services last week. Elbaneh has been charged in the United States with providing material support to al Qaeda and is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list.
But officials say it’s unclear when or even if they will ever get to question Elbaneh.
A spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy released a statement to ABC News, noting that because Elbaneh is a Yemeni citizen, the constitution of that country prohibits his extradition to face a trial abroad.
Elbaneh holds dual citizenship with the U.S., but no extradition treaty exists between the two countries.
Spokesman Mohammed Albahsa concluded his statement by saying, “Elbaneh is in our custody and make no mistake justice will prevail.”
