Who would want to bomb the Cubs? They suck!
"Would-be Chicago bomber gets 23-year term" Associated Press, May 31, 2013
CHICAGO — A Lebanese immigrant was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Thursday for placing a backpack he believed contained a powerful bomb along a bustling city street near the Chicago Cubs’ baseball stadium.
Sami Samir Hassoun’s sentencing in federal court in Chicago came little more than a month after bombs concealed in backpacks exploded at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding hundreds more.
In imposing the sentence, the judge invoked the specter of the Boston Marathon, saying had Hassoun’s bomb been real, it would have made Boston look like a minor incident by comparison.
Minutes before, Hassoun, a 25-year-old onetime Chicago baker and candy-store worker, apologized for what he had done in a five-minute statement.
Crying, he also turned to look at his mother and several friends on a nearby bench and told them he was sorry ‘‘for the shame I brought on you.’’
His mother sobbed aloud and said back to her son: ‘‘I love you.’’
Mothers do that, yeah.
The defense has depicted Hassoun as a uniquely gullible youth sucked into the 2010 terrorism sting during an alcohol-addled stretch of his life by an informant eager to please his FBI handlers. No wonder both were wailing.
The kid was set up, maybe drugged even. Plied with booze perhaps? I hate to be stereotypical, but I knew a Lebanese guy who couldn't hold his drink (admittedly, he was small in stature and build). It's a Native American analogy, right?
But prosecutors say he showed enthusiasm and initiative, including by deciding to drop the device given to him by undercover agents into a trash bin near Wrigley Field and a bar packed with late-night revelers.
He didn't try to use the "I was drunk" defense that seems to work for lascivious and licentious politicians?
As part of a plea deal with the government, Hassoun pleaded guilty last year to two explosives counts.
In return, he faced a sentencing range of 20 to 30 years, rather than a maximum term of life in prison.
And by that time he will be nothing more than a non-footnote in history.
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FLASHBACK:
"Chicago fake-bomb suspect pleads guilty" April 24, 2012
CHICAGO
- A Chicago man accused of placing a backpack he thought held a bomb
near the home of the Chicago Cubs pleaded guilty to weapons charges
Monday and could face up to 30 years in federal prison.
Sami Samir
Hassoun, 24, admitted he took what he thought was a bomb and dropped it
in a trash bin near Wrigley Field with the hope of taking down nearly
half of a city block in the bustling neighborhood. It was a fake device
given to him by undercover FBI agents who had been tipped off by an
informant.
Actually, I find that the FASCIST BUREAU of INSTIGATION and it's PATSY-PLOT FRAME-UPS are making me ANGRY!!
Do I LOOK LIKE I'M LAUGHING HERE?
The
Lebanese immigrant believed an attack on an entertainment hub like
Wrigley, where a concert was being held that night, would “paralyze’’
Chicago commerce, according to the plea deal that requires him to
cooperate with the government.
Hassoun appeared in court wearing an orange jumpsuit and spoke little....
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