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Accused al Qaeda agent pleads guilty in U.S.


    PEORIA, Illinois (Reuters) - An accused sleeper agent for al Qaeda held in isolation in a U.S. Navy brig for six years pleaded guilty in court on Thursday to a terrorist conspiracy charge, and could face up to 15 years in prison.

    Ali al-Marri, a 43-year-old with dual citizenship in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, entered the guilty plea to conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mihm.

    As part of the plea agreement, a second charge of providing material support for terrorism will be dropped when he is sentenced on July 30.

    Prosecutors said Marri, who had previously been held without charge as an "enemy combatant," had his first contacts with al Qaeda in 1998 and attended training camps in Pakistan.

    They said he was doing research on poisons consistent with the group's terror training, and he had acquired information about U.S. dams and tunnels.

    At sentencing Marri could receive credit for at least some of the time he has already served. Marri entered the United States on a student visa the day before the September 11, 2001, attacks and was arrested in December 2001 as a material witness to the hijacked plane attacks in New York.

    (Reporting by Andy Kravetz; Writing by Andrew Stern)