BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The six suspected members of a New York terror cell must remain jailed until their trial to prevent the possibility of a terrorist act, a prosecutor said Friday.
"The government and the American public just cannot afford to have a crime on the scale of al-Qaida ever occurring again," said Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hochul.
The federal judge who will decide whether to set bail questioned Hochul's claims that the men pose an immediate danger. Authorities said previously they had no evidence of any pending attacks planned by the alleged terror cell.
"I haven't heard of any act of violence or propensity of violence in the history of these individuals," said U.S. Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. He said he would rule on bail requests by Oct. 3.
"I know there are people out there who say if we let these people out and we have another 9-11 -- God forbid -- but that's a risk I would be taking," Schroeder said near the end of Friday's hearing. "I'm not concerned with what other people think."
Prosecutors allege the six men, all U.S. citizens of Yemeni descent and Muslims, were schooled in the tools of terror, including the use of suicide as a weapon, at a camp run by al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
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