By VANESSA THOMAS and T.J. PIGNATARO News Staff Reporters

11/11/2002 Members of Western New York's Muslim community were mourning over the weekend and questioning the rationale behind an American missile attack in Yemen that killed Kamal Derwish, the alleged ringleader of a terrorist sleeper cell in Lackawanna.

Derwish, a Lackawanna native and a U.S. citizen, was killed when a pilotless drone aircraft dropped a missile on a car he and five others were riding in last week near Sana, Yemen. One of the others, Abu Ali al-Harithi, was alleged to be a leading member of al-Qaida who masterminded the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

The Hellfire missile was launched from an aircraft operated by the CIA hundreds of miles away from the vehicle in which the six men were traveling.

On Sunday, confirmation from the family that Derwish was among those killed in the attack was trickling slowly throughout the community.

A woman who answered the phone at the Lackawanna home of Derwish's aunt, Fatima Alderwish, refused to comment, but confirmed the death by saying, "Yes, he died."

Acquaintances of Derwish and members of Lackawanna's large Yemeni community said they mourn for the loss of a human life and question whether the CIA effort had broken any international, constitutional or human rights law.

Mohamed Albanna, vice president of the American Muslim Council in Buffalo Niagara, said the U.S. government demonstrated a dangerous precedent by attacking Derwish, Al-Harithi and the others. The CIA's effort operated under highly classified rules derived from a "presidential finding" approved by President Bush and vetted by White House, CIA and State Department lawyers.

"The U.S. government has always condemned targeted assassinations," said Albanna. "A U.S. citizen should not be persecuted until they are given a fair trial. But now we will never know.

"The government had the opportunity to capture them if they wanted to. The car was not accompanied by the military. If the individuals resisted arrest and were killed in the line of duty, then that's a different story, but my question is, did they try to capture the people in the car?"

Dr. Khalid J. Qazi, president of the Western New York Chapel of the American Muslim Council, said many questions about the nature of the missile strike in Yemen still remained unanswered late Sunday.

"I think there is a reason to believe the Yemeni government has been helpful in this and it would probably not have happened without their . . . cooperation," Qazi said. "We have to pursue the war on terrorism like we have been, but we cannot afford to lose the cooperation of other countries."

Nevertheless, Qazi feels some caution should be taken with respect to the methodology used in hunting down targets in this manner.

"I do not think it is a question about (Derwish), I think it's a question in general about whether what we are doing would give the green light to other rogue states to violate international law," Qazi said.

Amnesty International, a global human rights organization, criticized the method in which the six were killed when it received early reports of the attack on Friday.

"If this was the deliberate killing of suspects in lieu of arrest, in circumstances in which they did not pose an immediate threat, the killings would be extra-judicial executions in violation of international human rights law," according to an Amnesty International statement.

"The United States should issue a clear and unequivocal statement that it will not sanction extra-judicial executions in any circumstances, and that any U.S. officials found to be involved in such actions will be brought to justice," the organization added.

Amnesty International called for the U.S. government to provide "full clarification of the role played by U.S. personnel in the death of the six men."

Legal experts said they suspect this latest development will not have a major impact on the case against the six Lackawanna men accused of being Derwish's recruits and indicted on charges of giving "material support" to terrorist organization al-Qaida.

"We've progressed this far without him," said John J. Molloy, Mukhtar al-Bakri's attorney.

Kamal Derwish, a 29-year-old Lackawanna native of Yemeni descent, was considered by the community to be a quiet, devout Muslim.

He was often spotted praying with the young people and leading prayer groups in the local mosques.

But federal authorities painted a different picture, calling him the link between the Lackawanna men and Osama bin laden's terrorist headquarters. Officials privately believed Derwish was a hard-core Muslim fundamentalist capable of planning or executing a terrorist plot.

According to family members, Derwish lived on and off in Lackawanna's large Yemeni community. He left the country as a boy when his father, Ahmed, moved the family to Saudia Arabia in search of work. His father and mother, Asma, had immigrated here from Yemen.

As a young man, Derwish moved to Sana, Yemen, and became a devout Muslim over time.

In the 1990s, he made occasional trips back to Lackawanna, once working at a small local plastics factory, and moved back to town in 1998, living with an aunt and uncle.

About two years ago, Derwish returned to Lackawanna with a pregnant wife and moved with his family to Yemen four months after his baby boy was born at Mercy Hospital. The birth of his daughter soon followed.

For the past year, officials believed he was on the run in Yemen, a fugitive from justice.

Local Muslims said that no prayers for Derwish have been planned at any local mosques. The funeral arrangements are unknown, but most expect it to be held in his place of death and near his immediate family.

Derwish leaves behind a wife, son, daughter, mother, two sisters and three brothers - all believed to be living in Yemen.

"I was hoping that it was not true," said Albanna, who knew Derwish through his work in the mosque with young people.

"It's sad for the family and tough for the community," he said. "We have to value human life no matter who he is."

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002