Abdo gets two life terms in prison

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WACO, Texas, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- An AWOL soldier convicted in May of trying to blow up a Fort Hood, Texas, restaurant filled with soldiers was given two life sentences Friday.

U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. sentenced Naser Jason Abdo, 22, of Garland, Texas, to two life-in-prison terms plus another 80 years on four related weapons charges, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported.

Abdo, a Muslim, was arrested in July 2011 after going AWOL from Fort Campbell, Ky., and building a bomb in a Killeen, Texas, motel room. He said he planned the attack "because I don't appreciate what my unit did in Afghanistan."

"This prosecution demonstrates two important points," U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman of San Antonio said. "First, the prevention of tragic events such as Mr. Abdo was planning can be averted by alert citizens who pass along their concerns to law enforcement officials and by law enforcement officers who diligently perform their duties.

"And second, that those who use or plan violence to further their twisted agendas will be prosecuted as aggressively as the law allows and will, as in this case, spend the rest of their lives staring at the walls of a prison cell," Pitman said.

Abdo represented himself at sentencing after he requested the dismissal of his attorneys because of communication problems.