Man who tried to join al Qaeda gets 13 years

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A man who as a teenager was seen on surveillance video proclaiming his commitment to jihad was sentenced on Tuesday to 13 years in prison despite his tearful pleas to a judge that he was a disillusioned and immature high school student at the time he plotted to join al Qaeda.

“I am not the monster that the government says I am,” Justin Kaliebe told U.S. District Court Judge Denis Hurley before being sentenced. “I never intended to hurt anyone. That’s not who I am.”

Kaliebe, now 22 years old, also faces 20 years of post-release supervision.

The judge said Kaliebe’s offense “is very serious.”

“He was radicalized to the nth degree,” the judge said. “He was a very dangerous individual. People who engage in this type of activity ... must recognize that serious consequences will follow.”

Kaliebe was a 16-year-old high school student who had recently converted to Islam from Roman Catholicism when he landed on the radar of undercover agents on the hunt for would-be radicals on suburban Long Island.

FBI agents and New York City police officers watched him for 18 months before arresting him four years ago after he went to John F. Kennedy International Airport intending to fly to Yemen, where he would join the militant group al Qaeda.

Kaliebe pleaded guilty within a month of his arrest. His sentencing was delayed for four years while the court held hearings into whether he understood the gravity of his crime. He said Tuesday that he has renounced Islam, received his high school diploma while in prison and teaches fellow inmates to read.

Kaliebe’s attorney said he has Asperger’s syndrome and had developmental and psychological issues and a troubled home life.