Sixth al Qaeda trainee sentenced
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The six defendants are shown in a courtroom sketch from a court appearance in September 2002.
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(CNN) -- The last of six Yemeni-American men from upstate New York who admitted attending an al Qaeda training camp the summer before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, was sentenced to nine and a half years in federal prison Wednesday.
Sahim Alwan, 31, pleaded guilty in April to providing material support to the terrorist organization. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Skretny in Buffalo.
Five co-defendants, who also pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the government, were sentenced earlier this month.
"The conclusion of this prosecution demonstrates that the U.S. government will pursue every lead in order to prevent future acts of terrorism," said a written statement from U.S. Attorney Michael Battle.
Alwan admitted he attended the al Farooq paramilitary camp in Afghanistan and that he knew before his departure from the United States he was going to train for "jihad," or Islamic holy war.
Alwan and the other men initially traveled to Pakistan and stayed at al Qaeda guesthouses where they heard anti-American lectures and saw videotapes that justified suicide operations.
Alwan was one of the men who actually met al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who told him there were people willing to "bear their souls in their hands" for jihad.
The meeting took place just a few months before 19 al Qaeda suicide hijackers crashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing approximately 3,000 people.
Alwan, who fled the six-week camp after only 10 days, trained to use a Kalashnikov automatic rifle. The other men received more extensive training in weapons, explosives and tactics.
Alwan's cohorts were all men in their 20s from Lackawanna, New York, five miles from Buffalo.
They have denied being a so-called terror "sleeper cell" awaiting instructions from al Qaeda leaders.
The other defendants -- Mukhtar al-Bakri, Yasein Taher, Shafel Mosed, Yahya Goba, and Faysal Galab -- were each sentenced to terms ranging from seven to 10 years in prison.
A seventh defendant, Jaber Elbaneh, is a fugitive believed to be in Yemen.
