By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-930118.mp3
Dallas, TX – The 20 year old Jordanian man who tried to blow up a downtown Dallas office tower is going to prison for 24 years. KERA's BJ Austin says Hosam Smadi publically apologized before his sentencing.
Hosam Smadi admits he drove a truck bomb into the underground garage of the 60-story Fountain Place officer tower last September, set the timer, then tried to detonate the bomb using a cellphone from a safe distance away. That's when undercover FBI agents arrested him. They had supplied Smadi with a fake bomb. Smadi's attorney, Peter Fleury says his client was a 19 year old kid at the time, with mental problems and no way to execute a bombing until the FBI got involved.
Fleury: He did plead guilty. He did express his remorse for that. He publically disavowed terrorism and he publically expressed his hatred for Ossama bin Laden.
Federal prosecutors say Smadi praised bin Laden in online postings. And he advertised online for assistance to help him "strike America." U.S. Attorney Jim Jacks says it's a good thing the FBI found Smadi before some "real" jihadists did.
Jacks: Thanks goodness he was found. Thank goodness we were able to put together evidence, a strong enough case that he chose to plead guilty, and got a long sentence.
Dallas FBI Chief Robert Casey says Smadi was given repeated opportunities to back out of the project, but did not.
Judge Barbara Lynn took Smadi's troubled childhood and conflicting diagnoses of mental illness into consideration and sentenced him to fewer than the 30 years the government wanted. She told him that everyday he should think about the innocent people he would have killed. The Judge told Smadi, "You were about to commit one of the great travesties and injustices of our time."