'Millennium Bomber' Jailed for 22 Years over Plot to Blow up LA Airport

SEATTLE -- Al-Qaeda "Millennium Bomber" Ahmed Ressam was Wednesday sentenced to 22 years in jail for plotting to blow up a crowded Los Angeles airport terminal with a suitcase bomb five years ago.

The Algerian was arrested as he crossed the US-Canadian border with a carload of explosives on the eve of the new millennium on his way to detonate blasts in one the world's busiest air hubs on New Year's Eve 1999.

Ressam was convicted at trial five months before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on US targets on nine counts, but sentencing was delayed for years to allow him to provide information against other terror suspects.

"Mr Ressam was a harbinger of September 11," said US Attorney John McKay, who prosecuted the case, said after the sentencing hearing held under tight-security in the northwestern US city of Seattle.

"What he wanted to do was kill innocent children, women and men, he wanted to kill as many as he could. He's going to go to prison and that's where he belongs," McKay said.

Ressam's sentencing was repeatedly delayed after he struck a deal with prosecutors to provide crucial information on global terrorists in return for a 27-year sentence instead of a minimum stretch of 65 years.

But the now 38-year-old stopped cooperating with US authorities in 2003 after giving crucial tips in global terror probes, including the September 11 attacks, prompting prosecutors to ask that he be jailed for 35 years.

However US Federal Judge John Coughenour ordered that Ressam, 38, be jailed for 22 years with five years credit given for time served, making a total of around 17 years behind bars.

"We are disappointed that the court did not accept our recommendation of 35 years," prosecutor McKay told a press conference.

"This is ... less than we hoped for, but it is a significant, lengthy sentence," McKay said.

Ressam's refusal to cooperate further looked certain to force US authorities to drop planned trials of two crucial terror suspects after seeking their extradition from Britain and Canada, McKay stressed.

Unless Ressam breaks his silence, the US prosecutions of Canadian Samir Ait Mohamed and London-based alleged terror leader Abu Doha, a "central player in North African terrorist networks," will not be possible, he said.

"But I think it's frankly doubtful that Mr Ressam is likely to cooperate in the future," McKay conceded, adding that he did not believe Ressam, who he said harboured "extremist Islamic views" was a "changed man."

Ressam, who lived in Canada, was caught driving into the United States in December 1999 with the boot of his rented car loaded with 59 kilograms (130 pounds) of explosives and bomb-making materials, including four timers that could have been used for suitcase bombs.

The plot was avoided by an alert customs agent tipped off by Ressam's intense nervousness at the border.

Following a trial, Ressam was convicted in April 2001 of nine charges, including terrorist conspiracy but struck a deal to help authorities with other terror probes in return for a reduced sentence of 27 years.

During his first four years behind bars, Ressam helped US authorities crack Al-Qaeda cells and provided information about terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, where he had earlier learned his deadly craft.

But in 2003 he stopped cooperating, claiming authorities had mistreated him and expressing disappointment that he would that he would have to spend more than 15 years in jail.

Officials Wednesday dismissed his complaints of mistreatment as "completely and utterly without merit," saying Ressam decided to stop cooperating after realising the length of the sentence was not what he had hoped.

Ressam's lawyers had asked that he be put away for no more than 12.5 years, citing his past cooperation with US authorities.

The convicted terrorist showed no emotion during the sentencing hearing that was held under a blanket of tight security, but smiled briefly as it ended.

The judge also ordered that when Ressam has completed his jail term he be put on five years of supervised release during which he will be monitored and could be reincarcerated if he breaks its conditions.