[luspikals]

PEORIA, Ill. — An al-Qaida sleeper agent who admitted having contact with the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was sentenced to more than eight years in prison Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm could have sentenced Ali al-Marri to as much as 15 years. But he handed down the lighter sentence of eight years and four months after two days of testimony that included defense attorneys’ pleas for leniency based on what they called harsh treatment during the almost six years al-Marri was held without charges in a Navy brig.

The 44-year-old Qatar native pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

He wept through his 10-minute testimony Thursday, telling Mihm he was sorry he ever helped the terrorist organization and glad his actions never led to any harm.

Prosecutors had argued for the maximum sentence, presenting testimony to try to prove al-Marri would still try to inflict harm on the U.S. if he had a chance.

The judge’s decision could have had far-reaching consequences because the United States still holds more than 200 people without charge at Guantanamo Bay. If convicted, those detainees also could argue their time in custody should be considered at sentencing.

Al-Marri admitted that he trained in al-Qaida camps and stayed in al-Qaida safe houses in Pakistan between 1998 and 2001, learning how to handle weapons and communicate by phone and e-mail using code.

He also acknowledged having regular contact with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man who the government said was the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and with Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, who allegedly helped the Sept. 11 hijackers with money and Western-style clothing.

He was arrested in December 2001 while a graduate student at Bradley University in central Illinois. In 2003, President Bush declared al-Marri an enemy combatant, one of three held on U.S. soil since the 2001 attacks.

After the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in December to consider al-Marri’s challenge of his enemy combatant status, President Barack Obama ordered him surrendered to civilian authorities in Peoria, where Bradley University is located and he was indicted.

Prosecutors said al-Marri deserved the maximum sentence, writing in court documents he “was fully aware of the nature of al Qaeda’s violent philosophy against the United States and their ability to inflict mass casualties. He agreed to the mission knowing that it would be in furtherance of that agenda.”

During al-Marri’s sentencing hearing, an Air Force major testified she believed al-Marri would attack the U.S. if given a chance.

Maj. Deborah Sirratt said she based her conclusion on hours of interaction with al-Marri while she was in charge of medical care in the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C. She said he believed infidels — unbelievers — should be killed, talked about his beliefs as an al-Qaida member and thought “Americans should get out of the Middle East.”

Mihm couldn’t directly credit al-Marri for time spent locked up before he was charged, but he had the ability to give al-Marri a light sentence.

Defense attorneys had asked him to consider the years al-Marri spent locked up without charge, much of it in a Navy brig in South Carolina. Those years and cruel treatment — including sensory deprivation, lengthy interrogations and threats to harm his family — amounted to a sentence “beyond what our nation stands for and tolerates as a matter of respect for the law,” attorneys said in court documents.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...uspect_102909/