Tactical

Court Rules LAX Terrorist's Sentence Too Short

March 13, 2012

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the government's appeal and sent the case back to a federal judge in Seattle for resentencing for a third time.

A terrorist who plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the new millennium, now halfway through his 22-year sentence, will have to serve longer after an appeals court ruled Monday that the original punishment did not fit the crime.

In a 7-4 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the government's appeal and sent the case back to a federal judge in Seattle for resentencing for a third time.

Ahmed Ressam's plot to blow up the airport on New Year's Eve 1999, was "horrific," the court said. "Had Ressam succeeded, 'LAX' may well have entered our vocabulary as a term analogous to 'the Oklahoma City bombing' or '9/11,'" Judge Richard Clifton wrote for the majority.

Ressam, an Algerian national who had attended training camps for Islamic terrorists, was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, in Port Angeles, Wash.