Yaseinn Taher

Last updated

Yaseinn Taher is a Yemeni-American who grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he was arrested and charged under Title 18 of the US Code, together with the other members of the "Lackawanna Six", based on the fact the group of friends had attended an Afghan training camp together years earlier. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

The Taher household was not considered devoutly Muslim, although they forbade their children to date, they also exchanged gifts for Christmas and weren't "regulars" at mosque worship services. [1]

Taher was captain of the Lackawanna Steelers soccer team, and dated the cheerleader Nicole Frick, whose Catholic parents approved of him since he seemed "more white" than most Muslim-Americans living in the area. [1]

At his 1996 graduation, he was voted "friendliest" person of the graduating class. [1] He attended community college, while working odd jobs and living with his parents.

His maternal uncle, Abdulsalam Noman, was a Lackawanna City Council member and soccer coach at Lackawanna High School. [2] Noman largely dealt with media outlets when the Buffalo Six were discovered.

Marriage

In 1998, when Nicole informed him she was pregnant, the 18-year-old Taher arranged a hasty Islamic wedding in his parents' living room. [1]

Since Catholicism and Islam both allowed the marriage, on the basis that any children born to the union must be raised in their faith, Nicole and Taher argued over whether to raise "Noah" in the Catholic or Muslim faith. [1] Taher subsequently became more religious, and began attending communal prayers every day, and discouraged provocative clothing and television. [1] Nicole ostensibly converted to Islam after the birth of Noah, but still fought with Taher for increasing secularism. [1]

Meetings with jihadists

Like his friends, Taher began attending regular get-togethers at the Wilkes Barre apartment of Kamal Derwish, who had also grown up in the area, but had traveled overseas and spoke of fighting with the insurgency in Palestine and encouraged the friends to consider a Muslim's duty to defend the weak and innocent. [1] At one point, he disagreed with Derwish, noting that although jihad may be the correct path in Muslim nations attacked by outsiders, he could not support something like the USS Cole bombing which took place in Yemen, a country that had not been invaded. [1]

Afghanistan

Taher and six others traveled to Al Farooq training camp in Afghanistan in the spring and summer of 2001, [3] weeks before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. [4]

Return to USA

Six of the seven returned to the US [3] including Taher, Moseb and Galeb. They decided to leave together after Sahim Alwan made it clear he wanted to return home and was unhappy with the tone of the camp. They were driven to Quetta, and rather than wait a day for the next plane, took a bus to Karachi so they could leave Pakistan immediately. [1] During questioning upon their return four of the six men said they were coming back to the US from attending religious seminars in Pakistan. None mentioned the trip to Pakistan until Mukhtar al-Bakri was arrested in Bahrain and questioned by FBI agents on September 11, 2002. [3] [5]

Kidnapping

In September 2003 two men, Brett Bigalow and Timothy Fisher, were arrested and charged with extortion for kidnapping a man. The kidnappers demanded a $1 million ransom from a close relative of Taher, who subsequently contacted police after receiving the demand for ransom. The victim said his captors wanted to know where a seventh Lackawanna man- Jaber Elbaneh, was hiding. Elbaneh was a suspected terrorist whose whereabouts were sought by international police offering a $5 million reward if his location was revealed. [6]

Arrest

Five of the Lackawanna Six men were arrested in September 2002 and held in a federal detention center after several FBI raids in the Buffalo, New York suburb of Lackawanna. The five were Yahya Goba, Sahim Alwan, Shafal Mosed, Yasein Taher, and Faysal Galab. Mukhtar al-Bakri was arrested in Bahrain, brought to the US and charged with providing material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations, known as Title 18 of the US Code. The others were charged with the same violation of US law. [5]

Trial

In December 2003 Taher was sentenced to eight years in prison for supporting a terrorist organization. Taher, who was 25 years old at the time, pleaded guilty, admitting to attending the Farooq training camp run by Al Qaeda in the months leading up to the September 11 attacks. Taher and the other men admitted to training with weapons and explosives and doing guard duty at the camp. Each guilty plea could lead to a maximum ten-year sentence, but Taher's sentence was reduced for cooperating with federal officials, and for presenting letters of support from family members, as well as showing remorse. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lackawanna, New York</span> City in New York, United States

Lackawanna is a city in Erie County, New York, United States, just south of the city of Buffalo in western New York State. The population was 19,949 at the 2020 census. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in New York, growing in population by 10% from 2010 to 2020. It is part of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The city of Lackawanna is in the western part of Erie County.

Sahim Alwan is a Yemeni-American who grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he was arrested and charged as part of the War on Terror together with the other members of the "Lackawanna Six", based on the fact the group of friends had attended an Afghan training camp together years earlier.

Yahya Goba is a Yemeni-American who grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he was arrested and charged as part of the War on Terror together with the other members of the "Lackawanna Six", based on the fact that he and a group of friends had attended an Afghan training camp together years earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffalo Six</span>

The Lackawanna Six is a group of six Yemeni-American friends who pled guilty to charges of providing material support to al-Qaeda in December 2003, based on their having attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan together in the Spring of 2001. The suspects were facing likely convictions with steeper sentences under the "material support law".

Shafal Mosed is a Yemeni-American who grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he was arrested and charged as part of the War on Terror together with the other members of the "Lackawanna Six", based on the fact the group of friends had attended an Afghan training camp together years earlier.

Faysal Galab is a Yemeni-American who grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he was arrested as part of the War on Terror together with the other members of the "Lackawanna Six", based on the fact the group of friends had attended an Afghan training camp together years earlier. Along with the others he was convicted of "providing support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization", and received a seven-year sentence.

Omar Bakri Muhammad is a Syrian Islamist militant leader born in Aleppo. He was instrumental in developing Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United Kingdom before leaving the group and heading to another Islamist organisation, Al-Muhajiroun, until its disbandment in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Muhajiroun</span> Militant network based in Saudi Arabia and formerly active in the UK

Al-Muhajiroun is a proscribed terrorist network based in Saudi Arabia and active for many years in the United Kingdom. The founder of the group was Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Syrian who previously belonged to Hizb ut-Tahrir; he was not permitted to re-enter Britain after 2005. According to The Times, the organisation has been linked to international terrorism, homophobia, and antisemitism. The group became notorious for its September 2002 conference "The Magnificent 19", praising the September 11, 2001 attacks. The network mutates periodically so as to evade the law; it operates under many different aliases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anjem Choudary</span> British Islamist (born 1967)

Anjem Choudary is a British Islamist who has been described as "the face" of militant Islamism or the "best known" Islamic extremist in Britain. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2024 after being found guilty of directing a terror organisation.

Kamal Derwish was an American citizen killed by the CIA as part of a covert targeted killing mission in Yemen on November 3, 2002. The CIA used an RQ-1 Predator drone to shoot a Hellfire missile, destroying the vehicle in which he was driving with five others.

Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash is an American engineer who was convicted and sentenced to a seven-year prison sentence in 2003 for conspiring to aid the Taliban in fighting against U.S. forces and their allies in Afghanistan. Six weeks after 9/11, Hawash secretly traveled to China with a group of Portland-area Muslims, dubbed the Portland Seven, with the intent of entering Afghanistan to aid the Taliban. Hawash and his fellow conspirators were unable to reach Afghanistan due to visa problems, according to federal authorities,

Mohammed Junaid Babar is a Pakistani American who, after pleading guilty to terrorist related offences in New York, testified in March 2006 against a group of men accused of plotting 21 July 2005 London bombings. In return for being a government supergrass, his sentence was drastically reduced to time served and he was released leading to widespread criticism in Britain.

Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed is a double agent who worked for both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Egyptian Islamic Jihad simultaneously, reporting on the workings of each for the benefit of the other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaber A. Elbaneh</span> Yemeni-American terrorist

Jaber A. Elbaneh, also known as Gabr al-Bana is a Yemeni-American who was labeled a suspected terrorist by the United States after it emerged that he had attended the Al Farouq training camp alongside the Lackawanna Six, and remained on at the camp after they returned home. He fled to Yemen, where he worked as a cab driver before turning himself in to authorities.

The 2006 Cheetham Hill terrorism arrests was an anti-terrorism operation in the United Kingdom, in which Habib Ahmed, a taxi driver, was arrested by six policemen at his home in Cheetham Hill, Manchester on 23 August 2006 on suspicion of his involvement in a plan to attack on an individual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 attack on the United States embassy in Yemen</span>

The 2008 U.S. embassy attack in Yemen in Sana'a, Yemen on September 17, 2008, resulted in 18 deaths and 16 injuries. Six attackers, six Yemeni police and six civilians were killed. This attack was the second occurring in the same year, after a mortar attack earlier in 2008 on March 18 missed the embassy and instead hit a nearby girls' school. Islamic Jihad of Yemen, an al Qaeda affiliate, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The D.C. Five is a group of Muslim Americans from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with suspected ties to terrorism. The five men were detained on December 9, 2009, during a police raid in Pakistan on a house with links to a militant group. In part of an increasing trend in homegrown terrorism, they were in their late teens or early twenties.

Mukhtar al-Bakri is a Yemeni-American who grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York. In 2002, he was arrested and charged as part of the War on Terror together with the other members of the "Lackawanna Six", based on the fact the group of friends had attended an Afghan training camp together years earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh</span>

Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh is an American citizen who was convicted of terrorism-related offenses in 2017. Al-Farekh joined al Qaeda and attended an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.

Abdulsalam K. Noman is a Yemeni-American politician and soccer coach. He is the first Yemeni-American elected to public office in the state of New York, and the second in the United States

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Temple-Raston, Dina. "The Jihad Next Door: The Lackawanna Six and Rough Justice in the Age of Terror", 2007
  2. ↑ "Uncle: 'If He's Guilty, Let Him Pay Price'". 16 September 2002.
  3. 1 2 3 Azia, Roya; Lam, Monica. "Sleeper Cell - Profiles - The Lackawanna Cell | Chasing The Sleeper Cell | FRONTLINE | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  4. ↑ Staba, David (2003-12-05). "Qaeda Trainee Is Sentenced To 8-Year Term". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  5. 1 2 "CNN.com - Sixth man charged in Buffalo terror probe - September 17, 2002". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  6. ↑ "Two Men Arrested in Alleged Kidnapping". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  7. ↑ Staba, David (2003-12-05). "Qaeda Trainee Is Sentenced To 8-Year Term". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-05-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.