Man convicted in Oregon bomb plot

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PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American, has been found guilty in U.S. District Court of attempting to bomb the Portland, Ore., town square.

U.S. District Judge Garr M. King read the verdict in court Thursday. Jurors determined Mohamud, 21, was guilty after a 20-day trial. He had been charged with attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction in Pioneer Courthouse Square, 4 blocks from the court room, during a 2010 Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, The (Portland) Oregonian reported Friday.

Mohamud's defense team claimed entrapment by the FBI. He met for months with undercover agents he thought were al-Qaida operatives in plotting what he thought would be a violent holiday attack, the Los Angeles Times said.

Mohamud's chief lawyer, Stephen R. Sady, said the verdict would be appealed, prior to the scheduled May 14 sentencing, to demonstrate Mohamud should receive a sentence lighter than the potential term of life in prison he faces.

"We're disappointed with the verdict. We obviously thought he was entrapped," said Sady.

Mohamud's conviction makes him the ninth person to raise an entrapment defense after being snared in FBI terrorism stings since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, said Karen J. Greenburg, director of New York's Fordham Law School Center on National Security, noting all have been convicted.