A man who pleaded guilty to plotting to set up an Al Qaeda training camp in Oregon was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday.
The judge sentenced Haroon Aswat to 120 months for each of the two terror charges to which he pleaded guilty.
The British man admitted he traveled to Bly, Oregon, in 1999 at the direction of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, a double-amputee and radical cleric based in London. He said his orders were to help train recruits "who wanted to participate in jihad on behalf of a terrorist organization."
Speaking in the New York courtroom, Aswat apologized for breaking the law. He also praised the hospital where he received treatment for mental illness in 2008. He said the experience of the last 10 years has humbled him.
Judge Katherine Forrest said she took the rare step of recommending that Aswat be housed in a facility with special psychiatric care. She said she would support housing in England if the treatment there would be better.
Aswat was wearing a dark blue prison top and khaki pants, his hair in long braids. His hands and feet were not handcuffed.
Aswat, 40, was charged in 2005 in the plot to establish the camp for military training at a site known as Dog Cry Ranch. Prosecutors accused the defendant of arriving in Oregon with instructions on how to make bombs and poisons.
According to court papers, one communication between the conspirators said that the property was located in a "pro-militia and firearms state" that "looks just like Afghanistan" and that the group was "stockpiling weapons and ammunition." But the camp never materialized beyond a dozen people taking target practice, authorities said.
Mustafa was sentenced this year to life in prison.
Authorities say Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, turned London's Finsbury Park Mosque in the 1990s into a training ground for Islamic extremists, attracting men including Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid. He claims to have lost his hands fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/16/man-who-plotted-to-set-up-us-terror-training-camp-sentenced/
Find out more by searching for it!