Pilot Held as Terrorism Plot Suspect

U.S. officials said Friday that they have detained a former Sudanese air force pilot on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, while a judge in upstate New York said six U.S. citizens of Yemeni descent must remain in custody for at least two more weeks for allegedly being members of an Al Qaeda “sleeper cell.”

The pilot was one of several Sudanese men who have been taken into custody in recent days after raising the suspicions of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials, authorities said.

“They exhibited some suspicious behavior that led us to take them into custody and question them as to whether there are any malicious intentions here,” said a U.S. official familiar with the case. “There are grounds to have them in custody due to immigration violations as well.”

Authorities released few details of the case, except to say that the men are in the custody of U.S. law enforcement officials and being questioned about potential ties to Al Qaeda and as-yet-unidentified terrorist plots.

One U.S. official said authorities are concerned that the men, particularly the former Sudanese pilot, might have been planning to hijack an airliner and fly it into the White House or another high-profile target. But that official and other intelligence sources cautioned that they have no definitive information to indicate that such a plot was underway. “He had possibly shown interest in aviation here in the U.S.,” said the U.S. official.

A second official, who works for a U.S. intelligence agency, said authorities are still unclear about what the men might have been doing and why they were in the United States. “We are trying to determine all of that now,” the official said.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Buffalo, N.Y., wrapped up the third and final day of a detention hearing for six men who have been charged with belonging to an Al Qaeda sleeper cell operating out of the nearby town of Lackawanna.

The case has attracted national attention since the men were arrested eight days ago because it is the first time the Justice Department has formally charged a group of U.S. citizens living on U.S. soil with belonging to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.

Several of the men have admitted attending the Al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001, according to affidavits and court testimony this week. But their lawyers on Friday insisted that the men were not planning any terrorist activities and should be released on bail pending trial. “Each of our clients deny he was ever a member of Al Qaeda, is now a member of Al Qaeda or ever intends to become a member of Al Qaeda,” said defense attorney James Harrington, who represents defendant Sahim Alwan.

Defense lawyer Joseph LaTona, who represents defendant Faysal Galab, said the government was being hypocritical by admitting in court Friday “that none of these individuals are members of Al Qaeda” while charging them with crimes that could bring each a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

“It’s the defense position that our clients are not a danger to the community or a risk of flight, and that the court can fashion some condition that would allow their release on bail” while they await trial, LaTona said. He offered to have his client wear an ankle bracelet and even submit to surveillance cameras in his house to show that he intends to stay in the hardscrabble steel town and face the charges filed against him.

But prosecutors said the six men must stay in jail to ensure public safety.

“The government and the American public just can’t afford to let crime on the scale of Al Qaeda ever happen again,” Assistant U.S. Atty. William Hochul said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks, which the United States blames on Al Qaeda.

U.S. Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroeder sided with prosecutors, saying he would study the testimony given during the three days of hearings, allow both sides to file additional written motions and then rule by Oct. 3. Until then, Schroeder told a packed courtroom, the men must remain in custody because of the government’s concern that they are a threat to the community and at risk of fleeing.

“I will attempt to balance all of the rights--the rights of the community to be safe and the rights of the defendants who are presumed to be innocent,” Schroeder said.

The six men--Galab, 26; Alwan, 29; Mukhtar al-Bakri, 22; Yasein Taher, 24; Yahya Goba, 25; and Shafal Mosed, 24--have been charged with providing “material support and resources” to Al Qaeda.

Two other men from Lackawanna, identified as Kamal Derwish and Jaber Elbaneh, are also wanted by federal authorities and are believed to be in Yemen. Authorities have said they believe that Derwish was the group’s leader and that he encouraged the men to travel to Afghanistan for training.

Once there, the men allegedly learned how to fire automatic weapons and attended a speech by Bin Laden, who urged attendees at the Al-Farooq training camp to join him in his jihad, or holy war, against the United States and its allies.

Alwan testified Thursday that although he attended the camp, he left after just 10 days “after realizing the crazy, radical mentality” of people there.

Government officials have said that merely attending the Al Qaeda camp is enough to violate federal laws relating to providing material support and resources to known terrorist organizations.

Defense lawyer LaTona disagreed.

“The facts alleged in the complaint ... do not constitute a violation of this statute as it was intended, as it was enacted, and as it has been interpreted,” LaTona said outside court Friday.

Mere attendance at the camp does not constitute material support for Al Qaeda, LaTona said in court Thursday. “There’s a gaping hole in their proffer concerning any acts either of any commission of any violence or even acts in preparation of any act of violence from June 2001 up until the time they were arrested,” LaTona said.