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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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