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Judge delays bond decision for alleged Buffalo terror cell
BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- Six U.S. citizens accused of being part of a terrorist training cell in Buffalo, New York, will have to wait another week to learn whether they will be granted bond before going to trial. Federal Magistrate Kenneth Schroeder is giving the defense more time to respond to government evidence filed last week. Schroeder originally was to announce his bond decision in court Thursday. In a meeting Tuesday between the judge and attorneys for the six men accused of being terrorists, the defense asked Schroeder to reject the new information from the government unless the defense was given time to respond to it. As a compromise, the judge said he would hear additional oral arguments from both sides Thursday in Buffalo in the presence of the defendants and then announce his ruling on bond sometime next week. Last Friday, the government said it had retrieved from at least three of the suspects audio tapes and written documents that contained speeches about suicide and jihad. Those additional materials were not referred to during a bond hearing that covered three days about two weeks ago. According to a Justice Department filing, one audio cassette tape obtained during a search of defendant Yayha Goba's last known address in Lackawanna, New York, is titled "'Caravan of Martyrs," and contains sounds of heavy artillery firing and references to such concepts as "Jihad is a duty, a person's existence is to live and die for Jihad, and becoming a martyr." Another tape, according to government descriptions, "contains songs with lyrics calling for fighting, revenge and for committing suicide missions. " Prosecutors said this is additional evidence that the men are a danger to the community and should not be given bond. All six men are charged with supporting al Qaeda by attending a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan for up to six weeks during the spring and summer of 2001. They are charged in a criminal complaint and were arrested last month. They have been held without bond pending the magistrate's ruling. Lawyers for the men have argued they are not guilty. The attorneys insist the men went overseas for religious training and had no intention of doing any harm to anyone in the United States or anywhere else. Two of the men have admitted in statements to the FBI that they did attend the terrorist training camps, but were afraid to tell anyone when they came home and were especially terrified to admit it to authorities after the September 11 attacks. The government's filing says a tape found in the home of defendant Sahim Alwan "states that American presidents Clinton and Bush are reportedly 'donkeys for the Jews to ride.'" "A third tape also contains teachings of being a martyr and of the jihad," according to prosecutors. Attorney James Harrington, who represents Alwan, said one of the additional audio tapes discovered in his client's home contains the voice of a local imam and was obtained from a bookstore attached to a local mosque. "The tapes and what's being said on them is being taken out of context by the government," Harrington told CNN. Alwan is one of the two who acknowledged going to a terrorist camp. He said he left after only 10 days because of "the crazy, radical mentality" of the people there.
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