“It was more the issue of military justice versus the rule of law.” Peter J. Ahearn, former special agent in charge of FBI’s Buffalo office
Lackawanna officials say troops in city was bad idea
Federal, local police arrestedthe six men without incident
By Lou Michel
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: July 26, 2009, 7:32 AM
Former Vice President Dick Cheney not only proposed to send U. S. soldiers into Lackawanna to arrest the Lackawanna Six but also wanted to declare them enemy combatants, which could have put them in front of a military tribunal.
Cheney and ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued that the six young men be declared enemy combatants, while former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III successfully argued against it, a retired high ranking federal law enforcement official said Saturday.
“President [George W.] Bush was in the middle and listened to both sides and, of course, the president absolutely made the right decision,” said Peter J. Ahearn, the former special agent in charge of the FBI’s Buffalo office who went on to serve as a senior adviser to the director of national intelligence before retiring.
Bush ruled out use of military personnel and declaring the men enemy combatants.
Lackawanna officials and citizens in the city’s First Ward, home of the Lackawanna Six, uniformly said it would have been a serious mistake to send soldiers into the city, pointing out that federal and local police succeeded in making the arrests in 2002 without incident.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less of the Bush administration,” Lackawanna Mayor Norman L. Polanski Jr. said in reacting to Cheney’s proposal to send in the troops. “The federal agents did their job and the Lackawanna police did their job. We didn’t need the military coming in. The community reacted cautiously, and nobody got out of hand or made outrageous statements.”
Relatives and acquaintances of the Lackawanna Six expressed shock that Cheney would consider such drastic measures.
“You can’t send the Army into the streets unless it is a major, major thing and this wasn’t even minor. It was nothing,” said Amin al-Bakri, the twin brother of Mukhtar al-Bakri, a member of the Lackawanna Six.
Ahearn said he and former U. S. Attorney Michael Battle, who respectively oversaw the local investigation and prosecution of the Lackawanna Six, strenuously disagreed with classifying the men as enemy combatants.
“There was a lot of armchair quarterbacking going on, people outside the FBI who just didn’t understand the process and the law, and that included the Department of Defense, the CIA and others,” Ahearn said, adding he was never involved in any discussions on troops but was kept in the loop on talks about declaring the men enemy combatants. “It was more the issue of military justice versus the rule of law.”
If the Lackawanna Six had been declared enemy combatants, they could have experienced a much rougher ride once they were taken into custody.
Like Jose Padilla, the al-Qaida suspect from Chicago who was accused of plotting to explode a dirty bomb of nuclear material somewhere in the United States, they would have been sent to a military brig in Charleston, S. C. Padilla, during his three years there as an enemy combatant, claimed he was tortured, which the government denied. And instead of having their cases handled in federal courts, the Lackawanna Six would have come under the military justice system, which does not provide the same constitutional rights private citizens are granted.
With revelations released in a New York Times story Saturday about Cheney’s desire to have the active military carry out the arrests, Ahearn filled in additional details of the behind-the-scenes debate.
The idea of using the military, Ahearn said, apparently came up at some point in a larger discussion on whether to have Bush declare the Lackawanna Six enemy combatants for attending Osama bin Laden’s terrorist training camp in the spring of 2001.
Using the military, according to Ahearn and other law enforcement officials, would have violated the federal law known as Posse Comitatus, which restricts the Armed Forces from performing law enforcement operations inside the United States.
As for enemy combatant status, Ahearn said, “There was the Department of Justice and the FBI that were basically saying this was an issue of rule of law. Why would we be doing this when we are inside the borders of the United States and this is domestic? Treating them as combatants, to me, was unnecessary. They were American citizens.”
As it turned out, approximately 130 federal agents and local police from the Western New York Joint Terrorism Task Force made the arrests the night of Sept. 13, 2002. The arrests were made without major difficulties in the city’s First Ward, where many residents— including the Lackawanna Six —are of Yemeni ancestry.
“If you bring in the military, you create a panic,” Lackawanna Police Captain Ronald Miller sid. “If yoou look at our history, the military, the National Guard, are brought in during times of extreme emergency, like [Hurricane] Katrina and securing New York City after 9/11.”
“I was really kind of surprised,” First Ward resident Patricia Barco said in reacting to Cheney’s proposal “I’mm glad cooler heads prevailed because everything went smoothly. Living in this neighborhood, we all get along and I don’t care what anyone’s nationality is.”
Bobby Green, a lifelong Lackawanna resident, said Cheney’s idea was “ind of craazy.” Amin al-Bakri, the brother of Mukhtar, said te accioos of the Lackawanna Sx were blown out of proportion.
“They weree young and their brains were played with by people who came here,” he said of al-Qaida recruiter Kamal Derwish, who was evenalay kililled by a llfiri missilile fired from an unmanned aircraft in Yemen.
“It’s like a gate that has a sign ‘do not enter.’ Some kids will enter anyway,” he said in explaining the wrong decision the six made by traveling to the training camp in Afghanistan.
All of the Lackawanna Six took plea deals and were sentenced federal p prison. So far, Faysal H. Galab, the first to take a plea and recee the e shtest t sentence, seven years, is out of federal custody and living in the Detroit area under his own name.
Yahya A. Goba, Sahim Alwan and Yasein A. Taher accepd deaealso enenr thehfedereral tness s prectioion program and are living under aliases while they complete their time behind bars.
Shafal A. Mosed is in a federal halfway house in Rocheer workiki as a a day laborer and plans to return to Lackawanna and rejoin his wife and child in September,ccording t to members of the Yemeni community in Lackawanna.
Mukhtar al-Bakri is the only member of thLackawannana Sistill i cacceratated at a highly secure speal unit atat the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. He is not expected to be released untiearlyl2011.1.
Ahearn, in offering a final thought, said the Lackawanna S are f finishing up their sentences and it is me to moveve on.
“It’s time to heal,” he said.
lmichel@buffnews.com
BuffaloNews.com
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Originally Posted by ELVIS
And I don't have anything to add to your topic. Bush and Cheney were two dangerously ignorant motherfuckers.
