Most Wanted Al-Qaeda Operative Jailed in Yemen

Jaber Elbaneh, who is featured on the US State Department’s most wanted terrorist suspect list, was ordered to jail on Sunday by a Yemeni judge. Elbaneh’s case was highlighted in a Sunday Washington Post article, which reported that he had been living freely and openly in Yemen despite a $5 million reward for his capture and US calls for his extradition.^[1]

The Post article reported that Elbaneh has been living under the personal protection of Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose government repeatedly declined US requests to extradite the accused terror suspect. But shortly after the article went to press, a judge ordered Elbaneh to be arrested. He is currently being tried in Yemen on charges of conspiring to blow up several oil installations in 2006, and prosecutors had allowed him to remain free during the trial.^[2]

A US official stationed at the Embassy in Yemen praised the judicial order. "We have been waiting for the arrest of this wanted terrorist for a long time…[It] sends the right message that terrorists will be held accountable for their crimes."^[3] But despite his confinement, senior Yemeni officials doubt he will be held for very long, expressing doubt that he will be found guilty of terror crimes, adding further that he will not be extradited to the US due to a constitutional ban on the deportation of Yemeni citizens to other countries.^[4]

Elbaneh was indicted in 2003 by the US government for allegedly providing material support to a terrorist organization. Officials claim he was a member of the “Lackawanna Six,” a group of men from outside of Buffalo, NY, who reportedly traveled to Afghanistan to train in Al-Qaeda camps. While other members of the group returned to the US after the trip, Elbaneh went to Yemen, where he was reluctantly arrested by authorities after intense pressure from the US.^[5]

In 2005, Elbaneh escaped from a maximum-security prison and it had been rumored that the Yemeni government allowed him to remain free. One year later, Elbaneh was convicted in absentia in Yemen for his involvement in attacks on foreign oil workers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is currently being retried, along with 35 other defendants, for those charges.^[6]

The US has also pressed for the extradition of two other alleged Al-Qaeda operatives currently in Yemen, Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd al-Quso. The two men are wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which left 17 American Navy members dead, and also have $5 million rewards posted for their capture. Quso was released after serving a seven-year prison sentence for his role in the Cole bombing, while Badawi escaped from prison twice and was released once by Yemeni government officials.^[7]


________________
[1] Craig Whitlock, Al-Qaeda Operative Loses Freedom in Yemen, Washington Post Online, May 19, 2008 (available at www.washingtonpost.com).

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.