Some Lackawanna Six Terrorists Protected

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Some Lackawanna Six members protected

Updated: Wednesday, 25 Nov 2009, 12:55 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 25 Nov 2009, 12:55 PM EST
By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
LACKAWANNA, N.Y. (AP) - Some of the six men convicted in one of the nation's first major terror related cases following the Sept. 11 attacks have sought special government witness protection for their testimony against other terror suspects in prosecutions that followed.
Two members of the "Lackawanna Six," charged for attending an al-Qaida training camp in 2001, asked to enter the government's witness protection program as a reward for testifying at a Guantanamo Bay trial last fall. They and a third who testified at the same trial have since vanished from the federal Bureau of Prisons public database, one indication they got their wish.
In prison, protected inmates serve their time under aliases and in specialty units. After prison, the witness protection program gives participants a new identity, living expenses and medical care.
In the years since their arrests, within days of the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, federal authorities have said members of the group have been valuable witnesses -- not for their direct knowledge of terror plots but for their ability to describeal-Qaida training from personal experience.
The most active government witness among the group, 32-year-old Yahya Goba, has been absent from the Bureau of Prisons site for more than two years as he's testified in several trials, including that of Jose Padilla in Miami in 2007.
Two co-defendants, Sahim Alwan, 36, and Yasein Taher, 31, have not appeared on the bureau's inmate locator since they and Goba testified against an Osama bin Laden associate at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base a year ago.
Taher had been scheduled for a Sept. 1, 2009 release before his name disappeared from the site. His attorney, Rodney Personius, acknowledged that Taher was in protective status as he finished out his prison term but declined to say whether he'd opted to continue in the U.S. Marshal-run Witness Protection Program.
Taher and his relatives "just want to move on with their lives," Personius said. Messages left at a phone listing for Taher's wife, Nicole, and other relatives were not returned.
The names of the other members of the Lackawanna Six remain in the Bureau of Prisons' public database: Mukhtar al-Bakri, 29, is scheduled to be released July 2, 2011. Faysal Galab, 33, and Shafal Mosed, 31, have completed their terms and been released, according to the database. All were assigned to a special unit at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. housing those convicted of terror related crimes.
"Would you kindly stop calling," a man who answered the phone at Mosed's Lackawanna home said after telling a reporter Mosed was "not around."
Galab, who was released a year ago after serving the shortest term, is living in Michigan, a relative said.
A seventh Lackawanna man who attended the camp with the men remains on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. Jaber Elbaneh is believed to be in his native Yemen.
At the 2008 Guantanamo Bay trial of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul of Yemen, who made propaganda videos to rally al-Qaida recruits, Alwan and Taher publicly said they agreed to testify against al-Bahlul in hopes they would be allowed to enter a witness protection program with their identities shielded after their release from prison.
Alwan's attorney, James Harrington, said Alwan remains incarcerated but declined to comment on his whereabouts.
When asked about Alwan's request for protected status, Harrington said, "I don't think it would be in his best interest to go back to Terre Haute." The attorney noted the unit houses people convicted of any terror related offenses -- "not only (the Lackawanna men) but people who are real terrorists."
At the Guantanamo war-crimes trial, the New York men testified that their al-Qaida training at an Afghanistan camp included viewing a violent two-hour video that was meant to inspire terrorist recruits. Al-Bahlul, who made the video, was convicted of terrorism charges in November and sentenced to life in prison.
An October 2008 Justice Department audit report said there were about 500 federal prison inmates in its Witness Security Program (WITSEC), which protects federal witnesses who agree to testify against drug traffickers, terrorists, members of organized crime or other "major" criminals. That represents less than 1 percent of the bureau's overall prison population.
Inmates are housed in seven protective custody units within federal prisons around the country.
The prisons bureau does not keep statistics on how many inmates go on to participate in the U.S. Marshal Service-administered Witness Security Program after their release, according to the audit.
Outside of prison, witness security participants and their families typically are given new identities, housing, basic living expenses and medical care, according to the Marshals Service Website. They also can receive job training and employment assistance and are given round-the-clock protection by U.S. Marshals while testifying.
Padilla's was one of four trials, three in

LACKAWANNA, N.Y. (AP) - Some of the six men convicted in one of the nation's first major terror related cases following the Sept. 11 attacks have sought special government witness protection for their testimony against other terror suspects in prosecutions that followed.
Two members of the "Lackawanna Six," charged for attending an al-Qaida training camp in 2001, asked to enter the government's witness protection program as a reward for testifying at a Guantanamo Bay trial last fall. They and a third who testified at the same trial have since vanished from the federal Bureau of Prisons public database, one indication they got their wish.
In prison, protected inmates serve their time under aliases and in specialty units. After prison, the witness protection program gives participants a new identity, living expenses and medical care.
In the years since their arrests, within days of the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, federal authorities have said members of the group have been valuable witnesses -- not for their direct knowledge of terror plots but for their ability to describeal-Qaida training from personal experience.
The most active government witness among the group, 32-year-old Yahya Goba, has been absent from the Bureau of Prisons site for more than two years as he's testified in several trials, including that of Jose Padilla in Miami in 2007.
Two co-defendants, Sahim Alwan, 36, and Yasein Taher, 31, have not appeared on the bureau's inmate locator since they and Goba testified against an Osama bin Laden associate at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base a year ago.
Taher had been scheduled for a Sept. 1, 2009 release before his name disappeared from the site. His attorney, Rodney Personius, acknowledged that Taher was in protective status as he finished out his prison term but declined to say whether he'd opted to continue in the U.S. Marshal-run Witness Protection Program.
Taher and his relatives "just want to move on with their lives," Personius said. Messages left at a phone listing for Taher's wife, Nicole, and other relatives were not returned.
The names of the other members of the Lackawanna Six remain in the Bureau of Prisons' public database: Mukhtar al-Bakri, 29, is scheduled to be released July 2, 2011. Faysal Galab, 33, and Shafal Mosed, 31, have completed their terms and been released, according to the database. All were assigned to a special unit at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. housing those convicted of terror related crimes.
"Would you kindly stop calling," a man who answered the phone at Mosed's Lackawanna home said after telling a reporter Mosed was "not around."
Galab, who was released a year ago after serving the shortest term, is living in Michigan, a relative said.
A seventh Lackawanna man who attended the camp with the men remains on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. Jaber Elbaneh is believed to be in his native Yemen.
At the 2008 Guantanamo Bay trial of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul of Yemen, who made propaganda videos to rally al-Qaida recruits, Alwan and Taher publicly said they agreed to testify against al-Bahlul in hopes they would be allowed to enter a witness protection program with their identities shielded after their release from prison.
Alwan's attorney, James Harrington, said Alwan remains incarcerated but declined to comment on his whereabouts.
When asked about Alwan's request for protected status, Harrington said, "I don't think it would be in his best interest to go back to Terre Haute." The attorney noted the unit houses people convicted of any terror related offenses -- "not only (the Lackawanna men) but people who are real terrorists."
At the Guantanamo war-crimes trial, the New York men testified that their al-Qaida training at an Afghanistan camp included viewing a violent two-hour video that was meant to inspire terrorist recruits. Al-Bahlul, who made the video, was convicted of terrorism charges in November and sentenced to life in prison.
An October 2008 Justice Department audit report said there were about 500 federal prison inmates in its Witness Security Program (WITSEC), which protects federal witnesses who agree to testify against drug traffickers, terrorists, members of organized crime or other "major" criminals. That represents less than 1 percent of the bureau's overall prison population.
Inmates are housed in seven protective custody units within federal prisons around the country.
The prisons bureau does not keep statistics on how many inmates go on to participate in the U.S. Marshal Service-administered Witness Security Program after their release, according to the audit.
Outside of prison, witness security participants and their families typically are given new identities, housing, basic living expenses and medical care, according to the Marshals Service Website. They also can receive job training and employment assistance and are given round-the-clock protection by U.S. Marshals while testifying.
Padilla's was one of four trials, three in
the United States and one in Australia, at which Goba has been a government witness, according to his attorney, public defender Marianne Mariano. As a reward, the government reduced his 10-year sentence by a year.
Mariano said he remains in prison but declined to say where or discuss his future plans.
Padilla's prosecutors described Goba's testimony as critical because it detailed what went on at Osama bin Laden's al-Farooq camp, which the government claimed Padilla attended in 2000.
Padilla and two co-defendants were convicted of being part of a support cell that sent recruits, money and supplies to al-Qaida and other extremists.
Authorities never said the Lackawanna men posed an imminent terrorist threat following their arrests in September 2002. All pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization and were sentenced to between seven and 10 years.
The three who have been released "remain on supervised release so our court officers are still assuring that there is compliance with all of the court's restrictions," said William Hochul, the assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the men.
Terms of Galab's release, for example, included requirements that he get a job, submit to searches of his person and property and refrain from possessing any "terrorism or military related material," such as books, software or equipment.

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