SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court said today a 22-year prison sentence was too lenient for an al-Qaida-trained terrorist convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport at the end of the millennium.
A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Ahmed Ressam, 41, deserved a much longer prison term because he had reneged on a deal to cooperate with terrorism investigators around the world.
U.S. prosecutors said Ressam’s change-of-heart after two years of cooperation compromised at least two terrorist cases in the U.S., resulting in charges being dropped.
“We are gratified that the Court of Appeals recognized the importance of public safety at sentencing and that Mr. Ressam remains a threat to the public,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of Seattle.
Ressam’s public defender Thomas W. Hillier II declined comment.
The appeals court also took the rare step of removing from the case the Seattle trial judge who imposed the initial sentence because his “previously expressed views appear too entrenched to allow for the appearance of fairness.”
Federal guidelines suggest that Ressam should receive a prison sentence of 65 years to life after a jury convicted him of attempting to smuggle explosives meant for LAX across the Canada border in a rental car in December 1999.
Prosecutors argued for life in prison during a 2008 hearing held after Ressam recanted his cooperation and insisted that lawyers and prosecutors had badgered him into making false allegations against other alleged terrorists.
“Sentence me to life in prison or anything you wish,” Ressam told the judge. “I will have no objection to your sentence. Thank you.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the trial judge to impose a new sentence based on the federal guidelines.
Instead, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour sentenced Ressam to 22 years in prison, citing his two years of cooperation, and said Ressam’s “life history and personal characteristics support favorable sentencing consideration.”
The appeals court said Coughenour’s conclusions were “clearly erroneous,” and Ressam has an extensive criminal history. Writing for the majority court, Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcon said the trial judge failed to take into account public safety with the 22-year prison sentence.
“This factor is particularly relevant in a terrorist case such as this, where Ressam, who has demonstrated strongly held beliefs about the need to attack American interests in the United States and abroad, will be only 53 years old upon his release,” Alarcon wrote.
Circuit Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez dissented, writing that he would have respected Coughenour’s sentence.
Coughenour declined comment when The Associated Press told him of the decision. President Reagan appointed Coughenour to the bench in 1981 and he assumed semiretired status in 2006.
Investigators say Ressam attended three training camps for Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan between March 1998 and February 1999. He learned to handle weapons, construct bombs and the black art of sabotage before he was assigned with five other terrorist to a cell to be based in Montreal.
Ressam traveled to Canada in February 1999 with $12,000 in cash, bomb-making instructions and a key chemical used in explosives. The other members of his cell didn’t make it to Canada, but Ressam continued plans to bomb LAX.
Ressam hid 100 pounds of explosive materials in the wheel well in the trunk of a rental car, and on Dec. 14, 1999 drove it on to the American ferry M/V COHO at Victoria, B.C. He was also carrying a bogus Canadian passport.
A U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agent didn’t discover the explosives during a search of the car and allowed Ressam to board the ferry and travel to Port Angeles, Wash.
When Ressam arrived at the U.S. port, suspicious U.S. Customs inspector Diane Dean ordered the rental car searched. This time the explosives, complete with four timing devices, were found and Ressam was arrested.
“An explosives expert later determined that the materials found in the car were capable of producing a blast forty times greater than that of a devastating car bomb,” Alarcon wrote for the appeals court.
Ressam rejected the government’s offer of 25 years in prison if he pleaded guilty to nine felony charges, including conspiracy to commit an international act of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
Because of intense local publicity, the case was moved to Los Angeles. where a jury convicted Ressam on all counts on April 16, 2001.
Two months later, in exchange for a more lenient sentence, Ressam agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of his accomplice and provide any other information he had on terrorists plots to kill Americans.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Ressam also identified Zacarias Moussaoui from a photograph as someone he met in an Afghan terrorist camp. He also provided information showing that the shoe confiscated from Richard Reid — the so-called “shoe bomber” — was a complete bomb that should be handled cautiously.
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Associated Press Writer Gene Johnson contributed to this report from Seattle.
