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| Buffalo terror case awaits word on wiretaps |
| 2006-02-11 |
| A man accused of illegally wiring money to Yemen has asked a judge to determine whether any of the evidence against him was gathered secretly and without a warrant as part of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program. The suspect, Mohammed T. Albanna, 54, of Lackawanna, N.Y., just south of Buffalo, and two other men face charges that they ran a business that transferred $3.5 million from Yemeni-Americans to relatives in that country without the required permits. Last month, Mr. Albanna's lawyer, Philip M. Marshal, asked Judge William M. Skretny of Federal District Court here to force prosecutors to reveal if secret surveillance by the National Security Agency was used. The no-warrant wiretaps were approved by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity and are now the focus of a debate over the extent of executive power. Last week, the judge ordered an assistant United States attorney, Timothy C. Lynch, to produce a response from the Justice Department in Washington by Feb. 27. Mr. Marshall said Wednesday that he possessed no evidence that no-warrant eavesdropping was involved in the case, but made the request after news of the National Security Agency program was made public in December. "I don't know if they're going to say yes, no or 'We're not going to say,' " Mr. Marshall said. "If they don't give an answer by Feb. 27, the judge has ordered that someone from the Justice Department appear in his court. The judge is going to want to know why." Mr. Lynch, who has been involved with the prosecution since the three men were indicted in 2002, said he had no knowledge of secret eavesdropping in the case. Prosecutors have not suggested that Mr. Albanna or his co-defendants were involved in terrorism. "I told the judge the only investigative techniques I know that were used in this case were interviewing witnesses, intercepting express mail packages and using court-approved wiretaps," Mr. Lynch said. Mr. Albanna, an American citizen who runs a business that supplies candy and cigarettes to stores in the Buffalo area, said he and his co-defendants were part of an informal system, known as hawala, used to send money to people in countries lacking sophisticated banking and communications technology. He was a spokesman for the Yemeni community in Lackawanna during the prosecution of six men who traveled to Afghanistan and participated in an Al Qaeda training camp in the summer of 2001 before returning to the Buffalo area. All six pleaded guilty to supporting a terrorist organization and are in prison. A seventh man, Jaber Elbaneh — Mr. Albanna's nephew — remained in Yemen and was charged in absentia. The Justice Department issued a $5 million reward for his capture in 2003. Mr. Albanna said Mr. Elbaneh's relatives in Lackawanna believed that he has been in custody in Yemen since late that year. Mr. Albanna was charged in the money-transfer case two months after the arrests of the six men made international headlines. He said Wednesday that he wondered if his high profile as a spokesman for those men was a factor in the federal investigation. "That's what we're trying to find out," he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 sad but true Grunter. |
| Posted by: RD 2006-02-11 18:15 |
| #1 A big hand for the New York Times. Mission accomplished! |
| Posted by: Grunter 2006-02-11 12:13 |