The Hunt for Sleeper Cells

摘要

Criminal bail hearings in federal court can sometimes stretch on for hours. The law-: yers bicker about how much money the accused should "pay to go free until trial, and the judge prolongs the, proceedings with endless questions. But even by tiiose standards, last week's marathon session to decide the fate of" the "Buffalo Six" was unusual. For two-and-a-half days, federal prosecutors tried to convince federal Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroceder Jr. That the young men, all Americans of Yemeni descent, .were members of a Qacda sleeper cell who trained in an Afghanistan Camp in the summer of 2001. They were taught how to shoot Kalashnikovs, attended- a fiery anti-American speech by Osama bin leaden-and then, the government claims, returned home fo lackawanna, N.Y., to patiently await orders from the terrorist mastermind. The judge, a 66-year-old skeptical former prosecutor himself, repeatedly interrupted the lawyers with questions. "What is it the defendants were planning?" he demanded. "The government must establish that danger by clear' and convincing evidence."