Six Yemeni-American men have been charged in the United States with supporting the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda.
US Attorney Mr Michael Battle said a grand jury handed up a two-count indictment charging the six with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, al Qaeda, and providing material support to the group that the United States blames for the September 11th attacks.
The men were scheduled to appear in court in Buffalo on Tuesday.
U.S. prosecutors obtained the indictment five weeks after detaining the men from Lackawanna, New York, near Buffalo, on the basis of statements by two of them that they attended an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001.
Lawyers for the men - Mr Sahim Alwan (29), Mr Mukhtar al-Bakri (22), Mr Yasein Taher (24), Mr Faysal Galab (26), Mr Yahya Goba (25), and Mr Shafal Mosed (24) - said they had gone to neighboring Pakistan to further their education in their faith and were not members of a "sleeper cell" planning an attack on the United States.
Mr Alwan, who co-operated with the FBI, was released on bail two weeks ago but under house confinement with electronic and satellite monitoring.
Legal experts said the case demonstrated the Bush administration's eagerness to prosecute terrorism suspects. But defence attorneys have raised the men's constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of association.