Posted on 02/26/2009 11:07:56 AM PST by flutters
A man who embraced radical Islam after growing up in Worthington was sentenced to 20 years in prison today for plotting terrorist attacks against the United States.
Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys recommended the sentence in June when Christopher Paul, 44, pleaded guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. attorney's office said Paul became a trusted member of al-Quida and spent more than a decade traveling to the Middle East and Europe to assist terrorists and prepare for a "holy war."
He grew up as Paul Kenyatta Laws and graduated in 1983 from then-Worthington High School, where he was a member of the gymnastics team. He converted to Islam in the late 1980s and first went to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the early 1990s, joining al-Quida and training as a terrorist.
Federal agents said they found a "master list of contact numbers for senior al-Quida leadership and other radical Islamic fundamentalists and operative worldwide" in a search of his North Side home, where he was arrested in April 2007.
Judge Gregory L. Frost imposed the sentence this afternoon in federal court in Columbus.
Paul is the third in a group of Ohio acquaintances who have been convicted and sentenced for terrorist activity.
Iyman Faris, a Pakistani immigrant, is serving a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty in April 2003 to providing material support to al-Quida. He was a Columbus truck driver when federal agents arrested him for plots that were said to include bombing the Brooklyn Bridge.
Nuradin Abdi, a Somali immigrant, pleaded guilty in July 2007 to conspiring to support terrorists and is serving a 10-year sentence. He worked at a North Side cell-phone business. He was said to have met with Faris and Paul at an Upper Arlington coffee shop in August 2002 and advocated blowing up a Columbus shopping mall. In addition to training in Ethiopia for terrorist activity, prosecutors said he supplied Paul with credit-card numbers stolen from cell-phone customers to help fund their activities.
Jeezy petes...I graduated in ‘80 from Worthington...so close to home.
Mr G and I graduated from there in ‘66 and ‘70.
The town is hardly recognizable from when we grew up there.
----
Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.