Feds: Al Qaeda Figure Plotted Killings in Captivity

Jan. 17, 2008 — -- A high-level al Qaeda associate in U.S. custody, who was allegedly plotting to kill U.S. agents he appeared to be cooperating with, has been sentenced to life in prison for terrorism conspiracy charges.

Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, who met Osama bin Laden during training in Afghanistan and was later dispatched by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed for al Qaeda operations, was arrested in 2002 in Oman.

Jabarah, now 26, was brought to the United States, pleaded guilty July in July of that year to charges related to plots on U.S. Embassies in Singapore and the Philippines.

"Jabarah's sentence is more than appropriate, given that there is little doubt that an attack on one of our Embassies in Southeast Asia would have been carried out, and lives would have been lost, had our foreign law enforcement counterparts not broken up the plot," U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said.

He initially cooperated with the FBI, according to prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office and counterterrorism officials at a U.S. safe house where an FBI security detail monitored him.

But according to a government sentencing memorandum unsealed Thursday, after initially agreeing to cooperate with U.S. officials, Jabarah was "secretly planning to exploit the perception of cooperation that he created."

"Weapons and papers seized from Jabarah seized during an impromptu search of his quarters left little doubt that Jabarah was bent on carrying out a martyrdom mission to murder 'infidel' agents and prosecutors whom he considered responsible for his capture," the memorandum stated.

According to FBI agents, they recovered hidden steak knives, rope, directions for making explosives, pictures of bin Laden, 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and papers with the names of the FBI agents and prosecutors Jabarah regularly met with.

With his life sentence, he joins the ranks of other al Qaeda terrorists such as Ramzi Yousef, Zacarias Moussaoui and Blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones after making a lengthy statement in which he denounced violence.