Man gets 18 years in Seattle military complex terror plot

SEATTLE – A man who plotted to attack a Seattle military complex with machine guns and grenades as revenge for atrocities by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan was sentenced on Monday to 18 years in prison.

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, 35, also was ordered by federal Judge James Robart to undergo 10 years of supervised release.

Abdul-Latif previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder U.S. 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.

Abdul-Latif declined to make a statement in court on Monday.

Federal public defender Jennifer Wellman told the judge the defendant was remorseful. She argued for 17 years with five years of supervised release, noting Abdul-Latif was manipulated by the informant.

Abdul-Latif was arrested on June 22, 2011, along with an acquaintance from Los Angeles, when authorities said they arrived at a Seattle warehouse garage to pick up machine guns and grenades to use in the attack.

Investigators had set up the buy after a confidential informant alerted authorities about the plan.

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 Military Entrance Processing Station in south Seattle as revenge for atrocities by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, prosecutors said. The military complex houses a federal daycare center.

Mujahidh pleaded guilty in the case in December 2011.

Defense lawyers previously filed motions seeking to get some of the prosecution's evidence thrown out, saying the government should not have been able to obtain a secret warrant because there was no indication Abdul-Latif was involved in international terrorism.

That motion was denied by a federal judge, who said investigators followed proper procedures.