Is He A Nut Case, A Criminal Or A Revolutionary Patriot?

Man Given 30 Years In Plot Against Bush: Judge Rejects Life Sentence for Abu Ali

A federal judge in Alexandria yesterday sentenced Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the Falls Church man convicted of conspiring to kill President Bush and of joining an al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia, to 30 years in prison with 30 additional years of supervised release.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee denied government prosecutors' request to impose a life sentence, citing several mitigating factors, including the fact that Abu Ali "never planted any bombs, shot any gun or injured any person."

The 30-year sentence will "adequately and reasonably reflect" the seriousness of Abu Ali's offenses and "provide just punishment," Lee said, because it means the U.S.-born citizen, 25, will spend "most of his productive years in prison."

Abu Ali, dressed in a dark green jumpsuit with "Prisoner" stenciled in white on the back, showed no emotion when the sentence was announced. He declined to address the court before being sentenced.

Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty hailed the sentence in a statement as "strong punishment for the defendant's egregious crimes. It is important that Abu Ali remain behind bars until he is no longer a threat to the American people."

McNulty called Abu Ali's prosecution "a milestone achievement in the international effort to bring terrorists to justice."

The sentence disappointed Abu Ali's family and friends, who maintain that he was wrongly convicted on statements that they say were obtained under coercion and torture during his 20-month incarceration in Saudi Arabia.

"I think it's a sad day not only for me as a mother but for the whole country," said Abu Ali's mother, Faten Abu Ali, after the proceedings. "America is all about justice and democracy. Before we export democracy to the outside, we have to have it in our own land. My son didn't have a fair trial."

Abu Ali attorney Khurrum Wahid called the sentence "disappointing," noting that Abu Ali had testified during a pretrial hearing that "he was tortured, and that is the only reason he had made these statements."

Lee later said he found it implausible that Abu Ali was tortured, and jurors said after their verdict that they did not believe his story.

We have to ask what drives a US-born person to such extremes? The theory advocated by Bush and his gang is that our form of democratic government and economic environment of opportunity should breed endorsement of our way of life. Why didn't it work in the case of Abu Ali? Was he tortured and was his statements a product of deprivation, mistreatment, neglect and/or torture? Can we trust our government when they deny these allegations, given that they denied similar treatment at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and elsewhere? If Abu Ali actually plotted to assasinate Mr. Bush, he deserves the sentence... unless Ali's allegations of mistreatment and torture are true. Perhaps, if these allegations are true, Abu Ali is not only an innocent man, but a patriot standing up for his rights and constitutional principles. I am not saying he is right, I am just saying that we cannot be sure he received a fair trial (c.f. prosecutorial misconduct in at least two other terrorism cases), that he was not tortured (c.f. the reports of abuse and torture at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan), and that he was not denied his basic civil rights. Because our own government has been caught in so many lies and misdeeds, we cannot be certain... The culture of deception is undermining our ability to rely on the government.