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Lackawanna Six: al-Qaida or Victims of Misinformation?
Saturday, September 28, 2002
By Ben Dobbin
Associated Press Writer

"They've made it into a big deal and then they show up in court and produce a pop gun. There's nothing in the evidence that suggests for a moment they bought any part of what they got, unless you count against them that they didn't go the FBI and say, `Guess what! I've got something to tell you.' If they were foot soldiers, they were at the very bottom of the hierarchy."

LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -- AP
Kamal Derwish, federal authorities say, once boasted to fellow Yemeni-Americans in this old steel town that he expected to take up arms for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A burly and ebullient Islamic activist, Derwish was born in nearby Buffalo but spent most of his 29 years in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Neighbors say he promoted hard-core Muslim beliefs during periodic visits here over the last three years and enlisted a string of young adherents.

Now, six men who authorities say are Derwish recruits, all Americans of Yemeni descent who lived just blocks from each other in Lackawanna, stand charged with providing "material support" to a foreign terrorist organization. Authorities described them as a sleeper cell awaiting orders from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida network.

A debate swirls around whether the "Lackawanna Six" are al-Qaida acolytes or small-town dupes who had no intention of carrying out terrorist acts in their native land. Defense attorneys describe the six as victims of misinformation.

Derwish, an alleged co-conspirator described as their ringleader, is believed to be in hiding in Yemen.

More than 1,000 Yemeni-Americans live in this Lake Erie town of 20,000, working mostly in the fading steel industry or in low-paying jobs in the Buffalo region.

In spring 2001, six of them made their way to Pakistan, ostensibly to undergo up to two months of religious studies. Greeting them at a Karachi hotel, the government alleges, Derwish instead guided them to an Afghan training camp run by al-Qaida.

There, prosecutors say, they heard bin Laden giving a malevolent anti-American speech and beseeching followers to "fight for the cause of Islam."
(More: KATU TV News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan