Homeland Security

DATE=3/25/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=AL-QAIDA SUPPORTERS / GUILTY PLEA (L-O)

NUMBER=2-301298

BYLINE=BARBARA SCHOETZAU

DATELINE=NEW YORK

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The third of six Yemeni-Americans accused of training with the al-Qaida terrorist network has pleaded guilty in the northern New York city of Buffalo. Correspondent Barbara Schoetzau reports from V-O-A's New York Bureau.

TEXT: The co-defendants are called the "Lackawanna Six," after the suburban Buffalo city in which they live. They were arrested in September and charged with providing material help to a foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors say the six young men trained at an a- Qaida camp in Afghanistan in the Spring of 2001 -- just months before the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States.

The six men had pleaded innocent earlier, claiming they went to Afghanistan for religious study and had no knowledge of the September 11th, 2001, attacks. But in January one of the men agreed to testify against his five co-defendants and to cooperate with prosecutors. On Monday another defendant admitted he learned to use guns and grenades at an Osama bin Laden-affiliated camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

A third man, Yahya Goba, has now pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York, admitting he trained at the camp. Prosecutors hope the accused will provide information about other people who attended the camp or those who recruited them.

Goba, who is facing up to eight years in jail, will be sentenced in July. (Signed)

NEB/ NYC/ BJS/MAR