Man Gets 18 Years in US Terror Plot vs Military

A man who plotted to attack a military complex in the US with machine guns and grenades was sentenced today to 18 years in prison. Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, 35, also was ordered to be supervised for 10 years after his release. Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to murder US officers and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Prosecutors argued for a 19-year prison sentence with lifetime supervision following his release, saying Abdul-Latif directed major aspects of the planned attack, including picking the Military Entrance Processing Station in Seattle as a target.

"This was a real attack plot," said Assistant US Attorney Todd Greenberg. In conversations the FBI recorded with the help of the informant, Abdul-Latif and his co-defendant, Walli Mujahidh, discussed how they wanted to gun down people in the station as revenge for atrocities by US soldiers in Afghanistan, prosecutors said. Greenberg countered assertions by the defense that Abdul-Latif was a passive contributor to the plot, noting the defendant had been eager to take possession of machine guns and didn't back out of the plan when he had chances to do so. Abdul-Latif's public defender told the judge that her client was remorseful; Abdul-Latif declined to make a statement in court. (More Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif stories.)