US court rules against would-be millennium bomber
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday the would-be "millennium bomber" who plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport was properly convicted on one of nine charges on which he was found guilty.
By an 8-1 vote, the high court upheld Ahmed Ressam's conviction on one count of carrying explosives while committing the felony crime of lying on a customs form.
Justice John Paul Stevens said for the majority that Ressam had explosives in the trunk of his car when he lied on a customs form and thus was carrying explosives during the commission of the other crime, as required by the law.
The ruling was a victory for U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who had argued before the Supreme Court that Ressam's conviction should be upheld. A federal appeals court had thrown out that one conviction.
Officials caught Ressam, an Algerian national, at the U.S.-Canada border in December 1999 with nitroglycerin in the trunk of a rented car. He told authorities he planned to blow up the Los Angeles airport on the eve of 2000.
Ressam later reached a deal with federal prosecutors to give information about other terrorism suspects in return for a shorter sentence. He eventually angered prosecutors by refusing to cooperate further after early 2003.
Ressam left Algeria in 1992 for France and in 1994 sought asylum in Canada, which was denied. However he was not deported and in 1998 he attended an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He returned to Canada the next year to plan the airport attack.
The eight other counts included conspiracy to commit an international terrorist act and explosives smuggling. Those counts were not at issue in the Supreme Court's ruling.
Only Justice Stephen Breyer dissented. He said the law requires some relationship between carrying the explosives and the other crime committed by a defendant. (Editing by David Wiessler)
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday the would-be "millennium bomber" who plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport was properly convicted on one of nine charges on which he was found guilty.
By an 8-1 vote, the high court upheld Ahmed Ressam's conviction on one count of carrying explosives while committing the felony crime of lying on a customs form.
Justice John Paul Stevens said for the majority that Ressam had explosives in the trunk of his car when he lied on a customs form and thus was carrying explosives during the commission of the other crime, as required by the law.
The ruling was a victory for U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who had argued before the Supreme Court that Ressam's conviction should be upheld. A federal appeals court had thrown out that one conviction.
Officials caught Ressam, an Algerian national, at the U.S.-Canada border in December 1999 with nitroglycerin in the trunk of a rented car. He told authorities he planned to blow up the Los Angeles airport on the eve of 2000.
Ressam later reached a deal with federal prosecutors to give information about other terrorism suspects in return for a shorter sentence. He eventually angered prosecutors by refusing to cooperate further after early 2003.
Ressam left Algeria in 1992 for France and in 1994 sought asylum in Canada, which was denied. However he was not deported and in 1998 he attended an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He returned to Canada the next year to plan the airport attack.
The eight other counts included conspiracy to commit an international terrorist act and explosives smuggling. Those counts were not at issue in the Supreme Court's ruling.
Only Justice Stephen Breyer dissented. He said the law requires some relationship between carrying the explosives and the other crime committed by a defendant. (Editing by David Wiessler)
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