Mukhtar al-Bakri (born 1981) is a Yemeni-American who grew up in the suburbs of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. In 2002, he was arrested and charged as part of the

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...

together with the other members of the " Lackawanna Six", based on the fact the group of friends had attended an

Afghan training camp Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

together years earlier. Like the others, although initially entering a plea of "not guilty", he eventually pleaded guilty to "providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization". He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $2,000 fine.

Life

Mukhtar was born in 1981, along with a twin brother named Amin, to Ali al-Bakri, a Yemeni who had immigrated to the United States decades earlier, and had spent the past 25 years working in the

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana rail ...

Cheese Factory in New York. Ali and his wife, their twin sons, and their eldest son, his wife and children all lived together in a 2-storey house on Ingham Avenue.

Arrest

American counter-terrorism officials grew increasingly worried that al-Bakri's conversations kept mentioning a date in the future as the date of his "wedding" and the planning of a "big meal", so when he flew to

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

they arranged for a commando team to storm his hotel room on 9 September 2002. They were surprised to find al-Bakri in bed with his new wife, preparing to consummate their marriage - and quickly handcuffed him and hustled him out of the room as she cried.Suskind, R. The One Percent Doctrine He was held by Bahrain for five days, until State Trooper Mike Urbanski was able to fly out to the kingdom to pick up al-Bakri. After being interrogated and sharing his life story with Urbanski for five hours, al-Bakri had just one question he asked in return; how the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

football team was doing. He admitted in court that in April 2001, he and other members participated in a military-type training in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and $2,000 fine on a charge of providing material support to the

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

in December 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakri, Mukhtar American people imprisoned on charges of terrorism Buffalo Six Living people American twins American people of Yemeni descent 1981 births People from Lackawanna, New York