Chicago man gets 10 years in terror case

CHICAGO -- A Chicago man who pleaded guilty to a plot to attend a Somalia training camp with the dream of becoming a suicide bomber was sentenced yesterday to nearly 10 years in prison.

Standing in orange jail clothes, his hands behind his back, Shaker Masri, 29, looked calm as a judge imposed the sentence for one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist group.

"That you were willing to die in harming others is extremely disturbing to this court," U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman told him. "There is a need to deter you, people such as Mr. Masri, from this type of behavior."

Masri, who was born in Alabama but has close family ties to Syria, allegedly talked with an informant about killing a busload of U.S. soldiers and learning how to strap on a belt-full of explosives. He also allegedly spoke about "heavenly rewards one would receive for martyrdom," according to a government presentencing filing.

"Masri's goal was to be a tool of indiscriminate murder," the same filing said.

Masri was arrested in August 2010, hours before he was scheduled to leave for Somalia, where he hoped to become a suicide bomber for al-Qaida and another terrorist group, al-Shabab, prosecutors have said. He had allegedly started talking to a confidential FBI informant of his plans a little more than two weeks before his arrest.

After his arrest, investigators found a copy of Osama bin Laden's manifesto, "The Declaration of War Against the Americans," on his computer as well as the book "The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Self-Sacrificial Operations: Suicide or Martyrdom?"

Masri allegedly admired Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric believed to have inspired the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, shootings and the attempted bombing of a jetliner approaching Detroit on Christmas in 2009. A U.S. drone attack killed al-Awlaki last year.

Masri did display emotion once yesterday, interrupting and asking to speak when a prosecutor said he hadn't renounced his ideology. But after huddling with his lawyers, he stayed quiet. Asked later if he had any remarks, he said politely, "No thank you, your honor."

After his release from prison, Masri will be subject to 20 years of close supervision and monitoring, Coleman said. That will include restrictions on Internet access, she said.

Masri's mother, who had attended her son's hearings, died recently. No other relatives were in court. Escorted by U.S. marshals, he was allowed to visit his mother in the hospital in October before she died.