Man Gets 5 Years in Terrorism Hoax

A Tanzanian man who triggered a widespread public scare by falsely claiming that Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to bomb a Westside shopping center was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison.

Zameer Nooralla Mohamed, 24, told the court he regretted having made the hoax phone call last April to the Department of Homeland Security.

Mohamed, who pleaded guilty earlier to using a telephone to convey false information about an explosive attack, asked for leniency.

But U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson was unimpressed. He pointed out that scores of federal, state and local law enforcement officers were deployed to defend against an impending attack, that Westside residents lived in fear for a week, and that four innocent people accused by Mohamed were subjected to intensive FBI grilling.

“You have admitted this stunt was nothing more than a personal vendetta against four innocent people,” Anderson told the defendant, who represented himself during the proceedings. “Your callousness warrants a substantial prison sentence.”

Citing the massive disruption caused by the threat and the need to deter potential hoaxers in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Anderson said he had decided to impose a stiffer sentence than recommended under federal sentencing guidelines.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that the guidelines were no longer binding on judges. Now they are advisory. Had he still been bound to follow them, Anderson said he would have sentenced Mohamed to 37 to 46 months behind bars.

Mohamed, who had asked for a 12- to 18-month sentence, said he would appeal the sentence with help from the federal public defender’s office.

Mohamed made an anonymous call to the Department of Homeland Security claiming that four Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to bomb a shopping mall near UCLA. He named an ex-girlfriend and three of her friends as members of the group.

Investigators were able to trace the call to a telephone card used at a hotel in Calgary, Canada. The trail eventually led to Mohamed, who was arrested a week later when he crossed the Canadian border into Montana.

Mohamed, who has been held without bail, told FBI agents that he made the bogus phone call to get back at the former girlfriend, who he said owed him money.

Richard Garcia, head of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, estimated that the cost to law enforcement and losses to retail business from the episode was “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”