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 Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen and former
Oregon State University student, was convicted in January last year
of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Mohamud, then 19, was arrested shortly after prosecutors say he
attempted to use his cell phone to remotely detonate what he thought
was a car bomb near a Portland square that was crowded with
thousands of people attending a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony the
day after Thanksgiving in 2010.
In fact, the bomb was a fake, and had been supplied to him by
undercover government agents posing as al Qaeda operatives. Nobody
was hurt and authorities say the public was never in danger.
In court papers filed in advance of the sentencing, federal
prosecutors urged a judge to sentence Mohamud to 40 years behind
bars, arguing that he "believed he was going to maim and kill
thousands of people by detonating a bomb."
 Defendants in similar cases have gotten 23 years to life,
prosecutors noted.
Defense attorneys for Mohamud, who argued at trial that their client
was entrapped by overzealous law enforcement officers posing as al
Qaeda militants, asked that he be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
They said in court papers that Mohamud acknowledges the enormity of
what he did and he "continues to feel shame and abhorrence for this
conduct." Tung Yin, a law professor at Lewis and Clark Law School
in Portland, said that regardless of the sentence handed down on
Wednesday, Mohamud's attorneys could be expected to file an appeal
in the case.
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"They have every incentive to appeal. They have nothing to lose and
everything to gain," Yin said.
Mohamud's lawyers have argued that his constitutional rights were
violated because investigators obtained evidence through warrantless
interceptions of electronic communications between the defendant and
foreigners who were under surveillance.
Those arguments come at a time of increased public debate about
government monitoring of electronic communications of Americans, in
light of disclosures made by former National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden of U.S. surveillance activities.
(Reporting by Teresa Carson in Portland, Oregon; Editing by Dan
Whitcomb and Eric Walsh)
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