Ressam sentenced to 22 years in prison

Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian who sought to explode a Millennium Eve bomb at Los Angeles International Airport was sentenced to 22 years in prison today in U.S. District Court.

Ressam, 38, showed no emotion during the hearing, but smiled briefly as it concluded.

Jo Ann Oliver, one of his defense attorneys , said she thought Ressam was relieved to have this over.

In the months before 9/11, Ressam emerged as an important U.S. government informant on the al Qaida network, but later ended his cooperation. In a last ditch effort at an April hearing, Judge John Coughenour failed to persuade Ressam to resume helping the U.S. Justice Department in two significant terrorism cases that prosecutors say may now have to be dismissed. Ressam rejected the judge's request.

Coughenour said this trial shows that the justice system in this country works.

"All of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial," Coughenour said. "There were no secret proceedings, no indefinite detention, no denial of counsel."

"The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security. . . Unfortunately some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete, " he said.

"It is my sworn duty, and as long as there is breath in my body I'll perform it, to support and defend the constitution of the United States."

The hearing was marked by sharply different views on how to mete out justice for the would-be bomber. Prosecutors stressed that Ressam had gone back on an early pledge to cooperate and deserved a 35-year sentence.

Defense attorneys asked for less than 20 years.

U.S. Attorney John McKay said today he was disappointed Ressam did not receive a 35-year sentence, but said he respected the judge's decision.

"We must not forget why Ressam came here in the first place: to spread death and destruction, to achieve his terrorist goals," McKay said in a statement released after the sentencing hearing. "Ahmed Ressam's fate is to spend most of his life in a U.S. prison having failed in his effort to kill innocent American men, women and children before September 11th."

Ressam would get credit for the fives years he's already served. He likely would be eligible for additional three years off his sentence for good behavior.

In a best case scenario, he could be out in about 14 years, according to defense attorney Tom Hillier.

Though Hillier hoped Ressam would receive a shorter sentence, he said he was "very gratified" by the judge's sentence and described Coughenour's comments as "absolutely spectacular."

The sentencing comes more than a half decade after Ressam first was arrested by U.S. authorities in December 1999 as he tried to pass through U.S. Customs at Port Angeles in a car with bomb-making materials. In April 2001, he was convicted of trying to plant a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport, but his sentencing was delayed as Ressam agreed to aid the Justice Department, a month before 9/11, in investigations into the al Qaida network.

Ressam recounted a personal saga that took him from his home country of Algeria, to Montreal, Canada and through Europe to an al Qaida training camp in Afghanistan, and then back to Montreal to prepare the Los Angeles bombing attempt. Ressam offered the full or partial identities of more than 120 people he met as he embraced a militant Islamic jihad against the West. In June of 2001, Ressam also offered key testimony in the New York trial that ended in the conviction of Mokhtar Haouari, who assisted in the plot to set off a bomb at the Los Angeles International Airport.

But Ressam has refused to help the Justice Department move forward with two prosecutions of alleged al Qaida operatives.

One case involves the extradition from Great Britain of Abu Doha, alleged to have acted as a "central player in North African terrorist networks," according to a brief filed Tuesday by prosecutors.

The other case involves the extradition from Canada of Samir Ait Mohamed, who is alleged to have assisted Ressam in his efforts to commit international terrorism .

In court filings, prosecutors have said that the Abu Doha and Mohamed cases have been put into jeopardy by Ressam's unwillingness to follow through with earlier promises of assistance. And the government now expects to dismiss both cases.

"However, we do not intend to take any such action until sometime after Ressam's sentencing," according to a Justice Department filing Tuesday. "That is to allow for the unlikely possibility that, if Ressam receives a sentence higher than he hopes, he will resume cooperating."

Defense attorneys, in a Monday filing, argued that Ressam's early assistance enabled British authorities to arrest Abu Doha. They said that even without further testimony from Ressam, Doha is now a "marked man," who faces potential prosecutions in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

"He is now at a point where he feels he can do no more," Ressam's attorneys wrote in Monday's filing. "Mr. Ressam knows what he did was wrong and hopes the court accepts his statement that he is truly sorry."

In court yesterday, Hillier said Ressam's decision against continuing his cooperation does not undo the enormity of the information he has already provided. Ressam, he said, has been "clear with us in saying he can do no more."