WACO, Texas -
WACO, Texas (AP) - Naser
Jason Abdo sat alone in court with his hands shackled and a white cloth
secured over his mouth and neck. The soldier who went AWOL and plotted
to kill other troops outside a Texas Army post remained defiant Friday
as he was sentenced to life in prison, not asking for mercy and vowing
to never end what he considers his holy war.
"I will continue until the
day the dead are called to account for their deeds," Abdo said in a low,
gravelly voice through the cloth mask.
A federal judge sentenced
Abdo, 22, to two life terms plus additional time. The federal prison
system offers no chance of parole. He was convicted of planning what he
claimed would have been a massive attack on a Texas restaurant filled
with troops from Fort Hood.
In court, Abdo referred to
Maj. Nidal Hasan - the Army psychiatrist soon to be tried in a deadly
shooting rampage at that Army post - as "my brother." He said he lived
in Hasan's shadow despite "efforts to outdo him."
Abdo became a Muslim at age 17.
Outside court, prosecutor
Mark Frazier said Abdo had come close to carrying out the attack. U.S.
Attorney Robert Pitman compared the plot to recent mass shootings at a
movie theatre near Denver and a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee.
"In the wake of the tragic
events in Colorado and Wisconsin, this is yet another reminder that
there are those among us who would use or plan to use violence to
advance their twisted agenda," Pitman said.
Arguing for a life
sentence, Frazier had said Abdo still presented a threat. Abdo's mouth
was covered in court, Frazier said, because he had earlier spat his own
blood at agents believing he was infected with HIV. That belief turned
out to be wrong.
"He felt it was his duty to take lives, even after incarceration," Frazier told the court.
Abdo was AWOL from Fort
Campbell, Ky., when he was arrested with bomb-making materials last
summer at a Fort Hood-area motel. A federal jury convicted him in May on
six charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Abdo also was found guilty of attempted murder of U.S. officers or
employees and four counts of possessing a weapon in furtherance of a
federal crime of violence.
Representing himself, Abdo told the court how his effort to become a conscientious objector led him to Fort Hood.
He grew up in Garland,
Texas, and enlisted in the military in 2009 thinking the service would
not conflict with his religious beliefs. But as his unit neared
deployment, the private first class applied for conscientious objector
status, writing in a letter that accompanied his application that he
wasn't sure "whether going to war was the right thing to do
Islamically."
Abdo's unit was deployed to
Afghanistan without him. He said he would refuse to go even if it
resulted in a military charge against him.
But his conscientious
objector status was put on hold after he was charged with possessing
child pornography in May 2011. Abdo told the court he felt the
pornography accusation was made only because he had tried to leave the
Army.
"I just can't imagine a worse stigma being placed on a person," he said of that charge.
A month later, after his
efforts to reach out to the media had failed, Abdo said he decided he
"was going to go on jihad." Then, over the Fourth of July weekend, Abdo
went AWOL.
In a police interview, Abdo
said he wanted to carry out the attack because he didn't "appreciate
what (his) unit did in Afghanistan." His plan, he told authorities, was
to place a bomb in a busy restaurant filled with soldiers, wait outside
and shoot anyone who survived - and become a martyr after police killed
him.
According to testimony,
Abdo told an investigator he didn't plan an attack inside Fort Hood
because he didn't believe he would be able to get past security at the
gates.
Abdo said Friday he would
not ask U.S. District Judge Walter Smith for a lighter sentence. Most of
the prison time he received was mandatory under the charges for which
he was convicted.
"I do not ask the court to give me mercy, for Allah is the one that gives me mercy," he said.
Hasan faces the death penalty if convicted in the Fort Hood shootings. His court-martial is slated for later this month.
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