海角大神

One thousand, four hundred and six days after he screamed "God is great" while police officers dragged him into a waiting van, a young Somali American was sentenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to detonate a bomb.

Mohamed聽Mohamud聽was arrested Nov. 26, 2010, after pressing a keypad button on a cellphone that he believed would trigger a massive truck bomb and kill people gathered for the annual holiday event in the West Coast city of Portland. But the bomb was a fake provided by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida recruiters.

聽Prosecutors had sought a 40-year term for聽Mohamed聽Mohamud, 23, in the 2010 plot that actually was an FBI sting. But U.S. District Court Judge Garr King said聽Mohamud's聽youth and remorse for his actions helped lower his sentence.

Mohamud聽was 19 then, a fact a federal judge in Portland took into account when sentencing him Wednesday to three decades in prison. His attorneys asked for a prison on the West Coast, and pledged to appeal his sentence.

In their telling,聽Mohamud聽was a vulnerable, confused teenager, a prime target for the FBI sting. By playing on his Muslim faith, the undercover agents posing as jihadis lured him into a six-month plot that effectively brainwashed him: The Oregon State University freshman who entered the plot left it fully radicalized.

King disagreed with defense attorneys who made a last-gasp effort to portray聽Mohamud's聽actions as those of a confused teenager who just had his braces removed when first contacted by an FBI agent posing as a member of a terrorist cell.

When given the choice to participate in an internal, peaceful struggle,聽Mohamud聽instead declared he wanted to "become operational." He maintained that course even after being told he would see corpses and body parts.

Prosecutors had sought a 40-year term for聽Mohamud, now 23. But King said the defendant's youth and remorse for his actions helped lower his sentence.

King said he believes the actions of undercover FBI agents edged into "imperfect entrapment," the idea that while they didn't fully entrap Mohamud聽in a legal sense, they encouraged him to commit wrongdoing.

"This is a sad case," King said.

Mohamud聽and his parents spoke before he was sentenced.

"The things I said and did were terrible,"聽Mohamud聽said. "The hardest thing is to go over the (undercover agents') tapes, to see myself, to hear what I was saying."

His mother, Mariam Barre, begged the judge for leniency.

"Give him another chance," she said through tears on the witness stand.

His father,聽Osman聽Barre, said he has watched his teenage son become an adult in prison and mature in the process. But King said聽Mohamud's youth aside, the sentence had to both punish him for his actions and serve as a warning for anyone planning similar acts.

FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that King's remarks about "imperfect entrapment" will have no effect on the agency's sting operations.

Osman聽Barre was the first person to alert the FBI of his son's early leanings toward violent jihad, something he later said he regretted. The alert led the FBI to launch its sting operation.

Comey said Wednesday that parents in a similar situation ultimately have no other recourse, and he's unsure whether聽Mohamud's聽case would discourage them from coming forward.

"I just don't know what the alternative is," Comey said.

Jurors rejected聽Mohamud's聽entrapment defense at his January 2013 trial. The sentencing was pushed back a year after the government disclosed that warrantless overseas wiretaps helped make its case. The defense unsuccessfully sought a new trial.