Someone just passed on this sad news, Lackawanna High student is killed in attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen

A Lackawanna High School student who traveled to Yemen to be married last month was one of the victims of a terrorist bombing Wednesday at the U. S. Embassy in Yemen, the woman’s school principal said.

Attackers armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb assaulted the compound in the Yemeni capital of Sana.

Officials listed the 16 people killed as six assailants, six guards and four civilians.

Susan Elbaneh, 18, was killed, along with her Yemeni husband, as they stood outside the embassy, family members said Wednesday. They were apparently there to do paperwork for the husband’s move to the U. S. when the attackers struck, said Elbaneh’s brother, Ahmed.

I am still in shock about this. I know I may be preaching to the choir here, but terrorists pose the biggest threat to Muslims trying to live decent lives. What did this young woman ever do to anybody? I’ve had to go to US embassies or meet someone near a Western embassy while in the Middle East. I’ve passed through heightened security, metal detectors, police dog searchers in egypt hoping to protect innocent shoppers or restaurant goers from a terrorist attack. This stuff is real folks. You could be living your life, and somebody with a political point by exploding shards of shrapnel, bolts, and screws to destroy himself and the bodies of those around him. My heart goes out to this young woman, who like so many, was murdered in such a senseless manner. The constant fear that shadows the lives of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, and Palestine, is the worst kind of oppression. I don’t think I’m stretching too far to say that she died a martyr, a witness to how terrible terrorism is.

The article goes on to point out the ironies of our linkages and connections with those who would support terrorism.

School officials said Elbaneh was the daughter of Ali T. Elbaneh and the niece of Mohamed T. Albanna, two Yemeni-American community leaders who took plea deals in a case involving an unlicensed money-transmitting company that illegally sent at least $5.5 million to Yemen. Authorities never have alleged that the money was used for terrorist purposes.

In November 2006, U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny sentenced Ali T. Elbaneh to six months of home confinement for playing what federal prosecutors called a very minor role in the illegal business. Albanna received a five-year prison term.

Authorities said the dead woman also was related to Jaber Elbaneh, Mohamed Albanna’s nephew, a fugitive accused of traveling to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan with the “Lackawanna Six.”

The United States was angered when Jaber Elbaneh, 42, convicted in Yemen for planning attacks on oil installations, was allowed to go free while appealing his 10-year prison sentence.

He has since been taken back in custody, Yemeni officials say, but Yemen has refused U. S. requests that he be handed over for trial on charges of providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. He is listed by the FBI as one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.

Would Jabar Elbanah witnessed against those who murdered his relative? Would he have saved her and her husband’s lives. Or would that no snitch rule prevailed and maybe he would have seen that loss as collateral damage. My question for any of us is: what would we do if we knew someone would commit these actions? What we we do if she was our daughter, sister, cousin, or wife?

My thoughts and prayers are going out for her family and loved ones. Please pray for the Elbanah family and all countless unnamed victims of terrorism, whether it is state sanctioned or committed by organizations who justify the murder and maiming of civilians to achieve their purposes.