Kansas Man Accused in Failed Army Base Bomb Plot Sentenced

By JOHN HANNA, ASSOCIATED PRESS TOPEKA, Kan. — Oct 18, 2016, 5:50 PM ET

A Kansas man was sentenced Tuesday to 15 months in prison for helping a would-be jihadist's unsuccessful plan to plant what they thought was a bomb at an Army base.

Alexander Blair, 29, also was sentenced to two years of supervised probation. He was accused of loaning $100 to 21-year-old John T. Booker Jr. to store what they thought was an explosive device; prosecutors said Booker intended to detonate it outside Fort Riley in northeast Kansas in support of the Islamic State group. The device was a fake bomb built by FBI informants.

Blair pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in May, and U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree said from the bench that he regretted that federal anti-terrorism laws required him to treat Blair as if Blair had multiple previous criminal conventions despite Blair's previously "spotless" record. The judge also said he concluded — as Blair's attorney had argued — that an unusual genetic personality condition made Blair "susceptible" to manipulation by Booker.

Prosecutors had pushed for the maximum five-year prison sentence, but Crabtree said it would be too harsh for Blair's relatively small role in the conspiracy. Yet the judge also rejected the defense's request for five years' probation, saying it would not be enough punishment when Blair "understood the connection" between his loan and Booker's attempt to bomb the Army base.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]