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DALLAS (AP) _ A 20-year-old Jordanian man has received a 24-year prison term for trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper.
Hosam Smadi was sentenced Tuesday after he told U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn in Dallas that he was ashamed of his actions and renounced al-Qaida. He also called al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden “a bad man.”
He confessed to leaving what he thought was a truck bomb in a garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place building in September 2009, activating a timer connected to the decoy provided by undercover FBI agents, riding away, then dialing a cell phone number to trigger the blast. Instead, it alerted tactical agents hiding in a stairwell, who swarmed the rooftop and arrested him.
He had faced up to life in prison but received a reduced sentence after pleading guilty in May to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Lynn could have sentenced him to a maximum of 30 years under the plea agreement.
Smadi showed no emotion as he heard the sentence, but his father and sister sobbed.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)