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.
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 20s, 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 CIA aircraft in Yemen in November.