Massachusetts man sentenced to 17 years after FBI terrorism sting

Massachusetts man sentenced to 17 years after FBI terrorism sting

Rezwan Ferdaus

Scott Malone Reuters 12:20 p.m. CDT, November 1, 2012

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man was sentenced to 17 years in
prison on Thursday for a plot to attack the Pentagon and the U.S.
Capitol building in Washington with explosives loaded into
remote-control model airplanes.

Rezwan Ferdaus, who
was arrested in September 2011 and pleaded guilty in July to
terrorism-related charges in a deal with prosecutors, told the court he
has devoted a lot of time to self-reflection while in jail awaiting
sentencing and that he accepted his fate.

Ferdaus, 26, was arrested after
an FBI sting operation in which he requested and took delivery of
plastic explosives, three grenades and six assault rifles from
undercover FBI agents who he believed were members of the al Qaeda
network.

"I, the other, the uniquely dressed, the
lone man in these hours, I speak of humanity," Ferdaus told the court,
reading from a two-page, sometimes flowery statement. "No dehumanization
can serve as justification for inhumanity in other places."


About two dozen members of his family and friends cheered and
said, "We love you, we support you," as the Massachusetts-born Ferdaus
was led into court, handcuffed, with close-cropped hair and a beard.

The 17-year sentence, which also includes 10 years of
supervised release, was the result of a July plea agreement worked out
between his attorneys and prosecutors. Ferdaus pleaded guilty to charges
of attempting to destroy and damage a federal building and attempting
to provide material support to terrorists.

Prosecutors dropped four other counts that could have raised the total possible sentence to 35 years.

'MY SON IS INNOCENT'

Members of his family wept and embraced outside the courtroom after Ferdaus was led away.

"My son is innocent," his mother, Ana Maria Ferdaus, told
reporters outside court. "We are the best family that America will ever
have."

Before approving the sentence, Judge Richard Stearns told Ferdaus that he was impressed by his self-reflection.

"You don't need any lecture from me. Your statement
convinces me that you have the character and the capacity to search your
own soul," Stearns said. "I'm going to leave it to you to finish that
journey."

Ferdaus' attorney, Miriam Conrad, told
reporters after the hearing that her client had shown no interest in
terrorism before FBI investigators approached him.


"There was no evidence ever produced that Mr. Ferdaus sought out contact
with any outside groups before the government became involved or even
after the government became involved," Conrad said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Pirozzolo disagreed.

"He was a person who decided that he wanted to become a
terrorist," Pirozzolo said, adding that before the FBI investigation
began, Ferdaus had tried to obtain weapons illegally from an area gun
shop and performed surveillance on a train station in his hometown of
Ashland, Massachusetts.

"Those events predated the undercover operation that unfolded here," Pirozzolo said.

Ferdaus planned to carry out the attacks on the Pentagon,
located in Arlington, Virginia, and the Capitol using a scale model of a
U.S. Navy F-86 Saber fighter jet about the size of a picnic table,
which he kept in a storage locker in suburban Boston, authorities said.

Authorities said the public was never in danger from the
explosives, which they said were always under the control of federal
officials.

The government had alleged that Ferdaus,
who is Muslim, told undercover agents of his plans to commit acts of
violence against the United States by "decapitating" its "military
center" and killing "kafirs," an Arabic term meaning non-believers.

Source:-
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-security-ferdausbre8a018y-20121101,0,264457.story