Millennium bomber faces sentencing

SEATTLE, April 27 (UPI) -- Seattle attorneys for the would-be Millennium bomber are seeking a lighter sentence on account of his life-saving information and cooperation.

Algerian expatriate Ahmed Ressam, 37, was convicted in 2001 of transporting a trunkload of explosives in a car he was driving from Canada into Washington state, bound for Los Angeles.

However, in recent weeks, his attorneys have been busy producing "stacks of documents" to show how he gave authorities valuable, life-saving intelligence, the Los Angeles Times said Wednesday.

His defense lawyers contend his information saved countless lives, including those of FBI agents who otherwise wouldn't have known a sneaker they seized from would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid contained a virtually undetectable but powerful explosive device. They claim he provided information on more than 100 suspected terrorists, helped shut down clandestine al-Qaida cells and exposed valuable organizational secrets of the global terrorist network.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour could sentence Ressam Wednesday to at least 35 years in federal prison for his role in the plot to detonate a suitcase bomb at the Los Angeles International Airport in late December 1999 as worldwide millennium celebrations were getting under way.