In what a federal judge called a betrayal of his country and fellow service members that stretched from San Diego to the Persian Gulf and London by way of Connecticut, a former U.S. sailor was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.Hassan Abu-jihaad was a signalman on the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold when his San Diego-based battle group was ordered to the gulf to participate in operations against Iraq, the Taliban and al-Qaida. A jury convicted him in March 2008 of providing terrorist sympathizers who ran a London-based Internet business with classified information on his battle group's movements, which could have made it vulnerable to attack. Abu-jihaad was prosecuted in New Haven federal court because his e-mails were routed through computers in Connecticut. Judge Mark R. Kravitz said Abu-jihaad's actions were a "fundamental betrayal of your county and your oath" that endangered the United States and his shipmates.
Abu-jihaad, 33, a divorced father of two, converted to Islam in 1995 and lived in Phoenix. Prosecutors said Abu-jihaad, which means "father of holy struggle" in Arabic, sent e-mail to two computer experts accused of running Azzam Publications, the al-Qaida-connected Internet business in London in 2000 and 2001.
In arguing for the maximum sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Nardini said Abu-jihaad in e-mails praised the October 2000 terrorist suicide attack on the USS Cole -- in which 17 sailors died -- as effective psychological warfare and a "martyrdom operation." "He believed that dying in a fight against the United States would make him a martyr," Nardini said. "It's a twisted mind-set." Abu-jihaad, who did not address the court at is sentencing, said through his attorney that he maintains his innocence.
Abu-jihaad's actions were revealed when British authorities searched the home of Babar Ahmad, who ran Azzam Publications with Syed Talha Ahsan. The two British citizens were arrested in 2004, and U.S. authorities are trying to extradite them. The case is now before the European Court of Human Rights.
The New Haven jury also convicted Abu-jihaad, born Paul R. Hall, of material support of terrorism, which also carried a maximum sentence of 10 years. Kravitz overturned that conviction last month, citing reasons "largely related to the language" of the applicable federal law.
Nora R. Dannehy, acting U.S. attorney for Connecticut, said Friday that prosecutors had not decided yet whether to appeal Kravitz's decision on the dismissed charge. Dan LaBelle, one of Abu-jihaad's attorneys, immediately filed an appeal after he was sentenced Friday