Six upstate men accused of running an al Qaeda sleeper cell pleaded not guilty yesterday after a federal grand jury indicted them Monday.
Each of the six, all of Yemeni descent, faces two counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, for allegedly attending a terror training camp in Afghanistan.
While there, they were addressed by Osama bin Laden, who told them and fellow attendees that there “is going to be a fight against Americans,” the government alleged.
The men, all hailing from Lackawanna, a Buffalo suburb, were arraigned yesterday in Buffalo federal court.
The men have been held in federal custody since they were arrested last month.
Only one of them, Sahim Alwan, 29, was granted bail after a protracted detention hearing.
Alwan cooperated with investigators, telling them he had been at the camp with the other men but had left after 10 days.
The others – Yahya Goba, 25, Yasein Taher, 25, Faysal Galab, 26, Shafal Mosed, 24, and Mukhtar al-Bakri, 22 – were ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Kenneth Schroeder Jr.
Alwan remains jailed in Batavia as his lawyer makes arrangement for a $600,000 bond.
The Buffalo News reported yesterday that Alwan has been fired from his $31,500-a-year government job as a youth counselor.
With Post Wire Services