SEVENTH DEFENDANT NAMED IN BUFFALO CELL CASE, CHARGED WITH PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT TO AL QAEDA

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General John Ashcroft, Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff of the Criminal Division, and U.S. Attorney Michael Battle of the Western District of New York today announced the unsealing of criminal charges against a seventh, previously unnamed defendant in the Buffalo cell case for providing material support to al Qaeda.

A criminal complaint unsealed today charges Jaber Elbaneh, 36, of Lackawanna, N.Y., with conspiring with the six defendants and others to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, based on their attendance at an al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist training camp.

Elbaneh remains at large and is believed to be abroad. The FBI today issued a “Be on the Lookout” (BOLO) alert for Elbaneh, and appealed for anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward.

Mukhtar al-Bakri, the sixth defendant indicted in the Buffalo cell case, pleaded guilty at federal court in Buffalo earlier this week to providing material support to al Qaeda. Al-Bakri and the five other defendants named in an October 2002 federal indictment - Yahya Goba, Yasein Taher, Shafal Mosed, Faysal Galab and Sahim Alwan - have all pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with ongoing government investigations.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said that the charges announced today, combined with the guilty plea of the sixth defendant in the Buffalo case earlier this week, demonstrate the Justice Department’s never-ending commitment to the war on terrorism.

“On one front, we are shutting down sources of material support to al Qaeda and securing the cooperation of individuals who trained with our enemies,” Ashcroft said. “At the same time, the unsealing of the charges against Jaber Elbaneh demonstrates our ongoing resolve to hunt the globe for those who aid and train with terrorists. Our efforts will not stop until the terrorist threat posed to Americans here and abroad has been eradicated.”

On Oct. 21, 2002, Galab, Taher, Mosed, Alwan, al-Bakri and Goba were indicted by a federal grand jury in Buffalo, N.Y. Count One of the indictment charged the defendants with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists from the spring of 2001 through Sept. 13, 2002. Count Two charged the defendants with providing material support from the spring of 2001 through Aug. 2, 2001, for receiving military-type training at the Al Farooq camp affiliated with Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The material support charge prohibits anyone from knowingly providing or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as designated by the State Department. Al Qaeda was first designated an FTO in October 1999; that two-year designation was renewed in October 2001.

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