This article is not really about Jehovahs Witnesses, but it is interesting to see that the writer compares Jehovahs Witnesses with Islamic fundamentalists (I have made the sentences bold)
6th al-Qaida suspect held without bail in Buffalo
BY ROSE CIOTTA
Knight Ridder Newspapers
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LACKAWANNA, N.Y. - (KRT) - An American picked up during his wedding reception in Bahrain was named Monday as the sixth member of an alleged sleeper al-Qaida terrorist cell based here.
Mukhtar Ali al-Bakri, 22, was ordered held in federal custody Monday after appearing in federal court in Buffalo in handcuffs and shackles. Information provided by the slight-built man triggered a chain of events that led to his arrest and the arrests of five other Lackawanna men over the weekend.
Two other men described in government documents as "uncharged coconspirators" have not been arrested. In the Bakri affidavit, the government identified one of the two men as Jaber Elbaneh. His relatives in Lackawanna declined to comment. A neighborhood store owner said Elbaneh had traveled to Yemen with relatives several months ago to visit with their extended families.
The six suspects will appear in court Wednesday for a bail hearing that will require the government to disclose more details about the charges. All of the men face criminal charges of providing "material support and resources" to al-Qaida, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. A federal magistrate Monday entered a mandatory not-guilty plea for Bakri and approved a publicly funded attorney for him.
"He's a little bit confused about everything happening so fast," John Molloy, Bakri's attorney, told reporters outside the courtroom.
Molloy sounded skeptical about the government's case and said he wanted to hear specifics.
Bakri, a naturalized American citizen who was born in Yemen, was held by the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain on immigration charges after that nation was contacted by the U.S. State Department. He was turned over to American law enforcement and was accompanied by a New York state trooper on a government plane to Buffalo, arriving Sunday.
Bakri, interviewed by federal agents on Sept. 11 in Bahrain, admitted that he and some of the five other suspects had traveled to Pakistan in the summer of 2001 to attend training in Tablighi Jamaat, described by Muslims as a kind of Islamic Jehovah Witnesses in which members often travel from place to place preaching a kind of revivalist message, according to the government documents.
Like the other suspects, Bakri grew up in Lackawanna, where he played soccer and attended the local high school. All six live within a few blocks of one another.
In court, while asking for a public defender, Bakri said he last worked in May 2001, making deliveries for a wholesale company. His parents supported him, he said. In May, he traveled with them to Bahrain with plans to be married.
According to the government documents, before the wedding he met with FBI officials and told them that he and three other suspects traveled to Pakistan in June 2001, where they spent a week in Karachi before flying to the Pakistani city of Quetta. After spending a night there, they drove to Kandahar, Afghanistan, where they stayed in a guest house before going to the al-Qaida camp, where they were trained in the use of Kalashnikov assault rifles, handguns and long-range rifles.
While there, Osama bin Laden visited the camp and lectured about the alliance of Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida. His speech was anti-United States and anti-Israel, according to government documents.
Bakri also confirmed the participation of the two uncharged coconspirators from Lackawanna who have not been arrested.
Officials declined Monday to say if they know where the men are and whether they are being sought.
Bakri said there were 200 people in training at the camp who were divided into groups of 20, with each person given code names. Bakri's code name was "Abu Omar Alyafei." He also told authorities the code name of uncharged "coconspirator A," with whom he had communicated by e-mail, according to the government documents.
Bakri sent an e-mail to one of the coconspirators on July 18 advising "that person of information which law enforcement personnel interpret as referring to possible terrorist activity," according to court documents.
On Sept. 12, the FBI interviewed one of the five men arrested over the weekend, Sahim A. Alwan, 29, who also confirmed the trip to the training camp by the Lackawanna men.
Alwan told authorities his group of four left Lackawanna on May 14, 2001, and traveled to Toronto, to the United Arab Emirates, and then to Karachi, Pakistan, where they were met by "coconspirator A," a former Lackawanna resident who is a U.S. citizen and an acquaintance of Alwan's. This man arranged for their travel to Afghanistan, the government documents say.
While at a guest house, Alwan and Jaber Elbaneh were lectured on "jihad (holy war), prayers and "justification for using suicide as a weapon," according to government documents.
The four others in custody are Shafal A. Mosed, 24; Yabya A. Goba, 25; Yasein A. Taher, 24; and Faysal H. Galab, 26.
Despite the details revealed by the government, supporters insisted that the men traveled to the Middle East for religious training. Their trip "is not a new story. This is an old story," said Abdulwahab Ziad, imam of the Lackawanna Islamic mosque. 2002, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Rado Vleugel
http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/