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Halfway across the globe, US authorities have finally captured a terrorist fugitive who may have intended to be the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11. Closer to home they have arrested five men suspected of being part of a terrorist cell in a quiet suburb of Buffalo, N.Y.
The twin victories in the war of terrorism ended a dramatic week in which Americans commemorated the one-year anniversary of the suicide hijackings that killed 3,000 and were asked, for the first time, to move to the second highest state of terrorist alert.
In Pakistan, a raid and gunfight earlier in the week in the coastal city of Karachi nabbed Ramzi Binalshibh, officials disclosed Friday. Binalshibh was a roommate of hijacking leader Mohamed Atta in Germany; the FBI believes he was originally intended to be the 20th hijacker before he failed to enter the United States.
The capture by CIA operatives and Pakistani forces ended a one-year global manhunt for Binalshibh, who authorities alleged provided money and logistical support to the Sept. 11 hijackers after he couldn't join them in the states.
Meanwhile, FBI agents raided several locations Friday evening in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna, N.Y., arresting five Americans of Yemeni descent on suspicions they were part of a terrorist cell operating on US soil, officials told The Associated Press.
Justice Department officials were expected to detail the arrests Saturday in Washington. Officials said that while they had evidence of contacts with foreign terrorists and possible training, there was no evidence the men were in the midst of launching an attack.
A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Justice Department plans to charge the men with providing material support and resources to terrorists.
US officials said the discovery of the cell was connected to information that also prompted the Bush administration to raise America's terror alert to "code orange" ?a the second highest ?a on the eve of the Sept. 11 anniversary.
One senior government official said one of the men arrested in Buffalo is linked to Omar al-Farouq, a senior al-Qaida figure captured in Asia this summer, who has provided his interrogators specific information suggesting that terror cells in the region were planning attacks on US facilities. The official did not say how the two were associated.
(China Daily September 14, 2002)
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