Terrorist in S'pore US embassy bomb plot gets life
sentence
NEW YORK - A CANADIAN who admitted plotting to bomb US embassies in
Singapore and the Philippines was sentenced to life in prison on
Friday after telling the court he had been 'brainwashed' by al
Qaeda.
Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi descent, was
sentenced by a federal judge after pleading guilty in July 2002 for
his role in the disrupted bomb plots on orders from al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden.
He initially cooperated with US authorities but the relationship
soured and he grew to mistrust them during four years he was held
in prison.
He was sentenced without a trial, based on his initial guilty plea
and court documents on the secret case were only unsealed shortly
before the sentencing.
'I do not believe in terrorism, violence and killing,' Jabarah, 25,
told US District Judge Barbara Jones, saying he had been a 'naive
youth' who was indoctrinated by bin Laden and other al Qaeda
leaders.
'I was very unfortunately brainwashed,' he said. 'I was very sadly
deceived by them and they exploited and used me maliciously.'
The judge, noting that 'actions speak louder than words,' said
although Jabarah had denounced al Qaeda and terrorism, he was the
moving force in the embassy plots.
'That was a decision that had to be made knowingly and willfully
and cannot be mitigated' by arguing 'you were duped into believing
somehow killing innocent people could be right,' she said.
Jabarah admitted he swore loyalty in person to bin Laden in May
2001 and received instructions from accused Sept 11 mastermind
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to attack US and Israeli embassies in the
Philippines.
They later shifted the target to the US embassy in Singapore and
acquired surveillance videos and explosives.
Prosecutors said Jabarah was a liaison between al Qaeda and the
Jemaah Islamiah militant network in Southeast Asia, which has been
blamed for attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
Wearing shoulder-length hair and a brown-knit skull cap, Jabarah
had asked the judge to return him to his parents so he could take
up studies in ophthalmology. He showed no emotion as he left the
courtroom.
Plot exposed
After the bomb plot was exposed by Singaporean authorities, Jabarah
was arrested in Oman in early 2002 and deported to Canada. He was
transferred to the United States and held in safe houses and then
in a jail cell.
At first Jabarah cooperated with US authorities, but prosecutors
said he changed after a childhood friend was killed trying to
attack American Marines in Kuwait.
They said Jabarah vowed revenge and planned to kill FBI agents and
prosecutors assigned to his case, hiding steak knives and bomb
making instructions. 'If they release me ... then I will kill them
until I am killed,' they quoted him as writing in a diary. He was
moved to jail.
Defence lawyer Kenneth Paul said there was no plan to attack agents
but Jabarah felt he had been abandoned in jail.
Initially he did not have access to a lawyer, Mr Paul said.
Born in Kuwait, Jabarah moved to Canada when he was 12 and was
introduced to al Qaeda while visiting Kuwait as a teenager,
government records show. After high school, he travelled to
Afghanistan for militant training. -- REUTERS
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/World/STIStory_197912.html
It's about bleddy time..
