In a stunning move this morning, a federal judge postponed the sentencing of admitted terrorist Ahmed Ressam to give the Algerian three months to consider whether he wants to begin cooperating again with authorities.

Judge John C. Coughenour gave Ressam, 37, until July 28 to change his mind about working with law enforcement. In 2001, after Ressam found the American justice system had treated him fairly, he began providing authorities around the globe with information on the inner workings of Islamic terrorism, but stopped cooperating after becoming disillusioned with the government's response.

Coughenour said that delaying the sentencing for three months "won't be the end of the world, but there is a potential for the world to be in a better place" if Ressam, who plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport, reconsiders his position. Two other terrorism prosecutions were on the brink of collapse without Ressam's continued cooperation, the federal prosecutors said.

PAUL SCHMID / THE SEATTLE TIMES An artist rendering of Ahmed Ressam in court today.

In court documents, both sides have said the case is more than just a crime by one man, arguing Ressam's sentence will send a message to the world about the United States. To the prosecution, Ressam deserves 35 years, which would be a deterrent to other would-be terrorists. To the defense, 12 ½ years would encourage others to cooperate.

Ressam was arrested in December 1999, when he was stopped by a suspicious U.S. Customs officer as got off a ferry from Canada to the United States. As Ressam answered questions, sweating from both nerves and malaria, authorities searched his car and found a cache of explosives. He later admitted he planned to detonate them at Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the new millennium.

"He did not randomly choose any date," prosecutors wrote last week in a sentencing recommendation to the judge. "He chose the millennium so that the chaos and fear flowing from his act would be magnified ten-fold."

Just before trial, federal prosecutors offered Ressam a deal: a 25-year sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. Ressam refused, against his lawyers wishes. He was tried and convicted in April 2001.

A short time later, he had a change of heart. "The fairness of my trial was not what I expected,given what I did," he wrote to Judge Coughenour. "I am now firmly against operations such as the one I had planned in America and I am also firmly against such operations anywhere in the world."

He agreed to debrief investigators on Muslim extremism and to testify against his former comrades, both here and abroad. As his debriefings began, both sides agreed to ask for a sentence of not less than 27 years.

Since 2001, Ressam has provided a window on al-Qaida's methods, hierarchy, the location of other cells, safe houses and the use of forged documents that allowed the terrorists to cross borders with ease. Among other things, he has helped New York prosecutors convict the Montreal businessman who helped finance his failed attack; German prosecutors prepare cases against several suspected terrorists; and British prosecutors indict the man who ran the Algerian sector of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES U.S. Marshall's and Seattle Police patrol the exterior of the Federal Courthouse in Seattle. Security was increased for the Ahmed Ressam hearing today.

"In an entirely public way, he abandoned the methodologies that led to his arrest," his federal public defenders wrote, noting that the information Ressam provided was more extensive and important than anyone had anticipated.

But at some point, Ressam became disillusioned, according to defense documents. He had been questioned by numerous investigators, from several countries, over hundreds of hours. He had testified at several trials. He felt he had told authorities everything he knew-and yet they still wanted more.

The questions soon grew repetitive. He said he worried that he was conflating what he knew with what his interrogators had told him. And he began to shut down.

Prosecutors say he simply decided to stop cooperating, and that without his testimony, they will be forced to drop cases against two other alleged terrorists. Ressam broke his end of the deal and deserves more than 27 years, they argued today.

A psychiatrist hired to evaluate Ressam, however, wrote in court documents that he was suffering from the effects of years of solitary confinement, which puts the mind in an utter fog. It also causes people to fixate on something-in Ressam's case, that he was being manipulated by the government.

"The only way to have peace is give up hope," he told the psychiatrist.

Over the next three months, federal defender Tom Hillier said he and his team would work with Ressam to try to restore his emotional state.

Reporters Mike Carter and Hal Bernton contributed to this story. Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com