BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – The government offered a $5 million reward Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of a U.S. citizen characterized by law enforcement as a danger to the nation’s interests overseas after attending a terrorist training camp in 2001.

The reward, the largest allowed under a federal program, was offered in the case of Jaber Elbaneh, 37, a Yemeni-born former resident of Lackawanna, near Buffalo.

Authorities said Elbaneh attended Osama bin Laden’s al-Farooq camp along with six other Lackawanna men in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks. Unlike the others who returned home from the Afghanistan camp, Elbaneh remained abroad.

He is believed living in Yemen and “consorting with terrorists,” said Peter Ahearn, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Buffalo office.

“I cannot stress to you how concerned we are about Mr. Elbaneh’s activities overseas,” Ahearn said. Without offering specifics, he said, “I can tell you right now and based on the amount of money that we’re offering, we are concerned that Mr. Elbaneh is a danger to U.S. interests overseas and to other interests overseas.”

Ahearn said investigators did not have specific information that Elbaneh posed an immediate threat, “but we don’t know everything.”

The reward offered under the Secretary of State’s “Rewards for Justice Program” was announced on Elbaneh’s 37th birthday. His case is set to be featured on the Fox television show “America’s Most Wanted” on Saturday.

Elbaneh moved to the United States from Yemen in his teens, authorities said. He worked for the Sorrento Cheese Co. in Buffalo and for his uncle, Mohamed Albanna, at Queen City Cigarettes and Candy Co., a wholesale business in Buffalo.

Albanna is under a federal indictment for allegedly running an illegal money transferring business. His case is pending. Investigators have said they have not traced any of the transferred money to terrorist activities.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Albanna said he does not know where his nephew is. “I wish I do but I don’t,” he said.

When asked whether relatives had been cooperative in the search for Elbaneh, Ahearn said, “I think the cooperation could be better.”

“We strongly believe there are people in the United States, in western New York, that still have contacts and still have information that we would very much want to have in an effort to find Mr. Elbaneh,” Ahearn said.

Elbaneh is wanted in connection with a federal criminal complaint unsealed in May. He is charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization and conspiring to provide material support, specifically to al-Qaida.

The six men who traveled with Elbaneh pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. They face 7 to 10 years in prison when they are sentenced in December.

Ahearn said the six were questioned about Elbaneh as part of plea deals with the government that included promises to cooperate in future terrorism investigations. He declined to say whether they had provided helpful information.

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On the Net:

Secretary of State’s Rewards for Justice Program

http://www.rewardsforjustice.net

AP-ES-09-09-03 1825EDT