Homeland Security

DATE=01/10/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=YEMENI-AMERICAN/PLEA (S-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-298263

BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: One of six Yemeni-Americans arrested near Buffalo, New York last September on suspicion of belonging to an al-Qaida terrorist cell has agreed to plead guilty to charges of supporting the network headed by Osama bin Laden. Correspondent Nick Simeone tells us more.

TEXT: Twenty six year-old Faysal Galab agreed to the guilty plea during an appearance with federal prosecutors in Buffalo Friday three months after he and five other Yemeni-Americans were first indicted.

The six are believed to be the first group of Americans all living in the United States to be charged with being part of a so-called sleeper cell of al-Qaida terrorists -- the group blamed for the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Prosecutors have said they have evidence the six all of them in their 20's trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan.

None of the Yemeni-Americans is accused of actually taking part in terrorist acts. But prosecutors allege they were waiting for orders from al-Qaida to carry out another attack on the United States.

One Yemeni-American, believed to be the alleged leader of the Buffalo cell, was reported killed in a missile strike carried out by a remote-controlled C-I-A aircraft in Yemen in November. (SIGNED)

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