22 Years For Millennium Bomb Plot
Ahmed Ressam Convicted For Planning Los Angeles Airport Bombing
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Play CBS Video Video LAX Plotter Sentenced Akmed Ressam, the man who was convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Jim Stewart reports.
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United States Attorney John McKay (center) speaks to the media during a press conference with the prosecution team after the sentencing of Ahmed Ressam at the Federal Courthouse in Seattle. (AP)
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False passport used by Ahmed Ressam when living in Canada. (AP)
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"I'm sure prosecutors are disappointed but they surely shouldn't be surprised," Cohen added.
Ressam could be out of prison in 13 to 14 years with credit for time served and potential reductions for good behavior, but then will almost certainly be deported, public defender Thomas Hillier said at a news conference.
Hillier said Ressam showed little reaction to his prison term. "He takes the news better than I do," the attorney said.
U.S. Attorney John McKay said he doubted Ressam would provide any more information in the future.
"What else he knew may not ever be communicated to us, and that's part of the price he paid today," McKay said at a news conference after the sentencing,
Ressam had been scheduled for sentencing in April. After more than two hours of arguments, Coughenour called it off, giving Ressam three more months to resume cooperation.
Coughenour and federal prosecutors want Ressam to testify against his two co-conspirators, Samir Ait Mohamed and Abu Doha, who are awaiting extradition from Canada and Britain, respectively.
Information provided by Ressam in the past was given to anti-terrorism field agents around the world; in one case, helping to prevent the mishandling and potential detonation of the shoe bomb that Richard Reid attempted to blow up aboard an American Airlines flight in December 2001, Hillier said.
During arguments Wednesday, Hillier said the government's sentence recommendation was based on "self-serving, self-generated mathematics" that did not account for Ressam's cooperation.
"It is a flat fact that law enforcement, the public and public safety have benefited in countless ways," from Ressam's cooperation, Hillier said.
Coughenour unexpectedly called Andy Hamilton, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ressam at trial, from the courtroom gallery to give a sentencing recommendation.
After noting that Ressam's sentence would be "perhaps the most important sentence this court has ever had," Hamilton told the judge that Ressam's reluctance to cooperate should weigh heavily.
"You can't be a cooperator and a terrorist," Hamilton said. "When he stopped cooperating, he went back to being what he was."
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