22-year term for
would-be LAX bomber

SEATTLE (AP) - A federal judge in Seattle has re-imposed a 22-year sentence on an Algerian convicted of plotting to bomb the Los Angeles airport at the turn of the millennium.

An appeals court had told U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, to recalculate the 22-year term he handed down three years ago to Ahmed Ressam. But Coughenour on Wednesday kept the same sentence.

Prosecutors had sought a life term because they say Ressam has stopped cooperating on other cases.

The judge earlier had shown Ressam leniency for testifying against two coconspirators and providing other information about his training with al-Qaida.

U.S. border guards in Washington state arrested Ressam as he drove a rented car packed with explosives off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. Investigators determined Ressam's target was a terminal at LAX, busy with holiday travel.

A jury convicted Ressam in 2001.