US man sentenced in plot to help al-Qaeda
A US man was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison Thursday for conspiring to help al-Qaeda, in a case his defense had argued was a free speech issue.
Tarek Mehanna, who grew up in a wealthy Boston suburb, was found guilty in December of traveling to Yemen to seek training in a terrorist camp with the intention of going on to Iraq to fight US soldiers there. Prosecutors said that when that plan failed, Mehanna returned to the United States and began translating and disseminating materials online promoting violent jihad. (AP)
