So it is not terribly surprising that when Adel Daoud was 18 years old, he was vulnerable to the appeal of violent jihad. And when an undercover FBI agent offered to help him manufacture and detonate a car bomb outside a Chicago bar that could kill and maim a large number of infidels inside, he accepted the offer and even pressed the detonator of what turned out to be a dummy bomb that looked and smelled real but was safe.

Mass murder in the name of Allah tends to be a young man's game. A never-ending series of slaughters around the world, such as the Easter massacres of hundreds of Christian infidels, is the result of the appeal of serving a purportedly sacred end while acting out on feelings of anger and aggression. The siren song of access to virgins in paradise once the infidels are slaughtered, as the scriptures in the Koran and Hadith endorse, appeals to the raging hormones of adolescent and post-adolescent males in particular, though females and older males also are attracted to the idea of following Allah and achieving paradise though cruelty and murder.

All of that happened on 2012, and after years of incarceration while the case was prosecuted and he was tried, yesterday Daoud was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison, not the 40 years the prosecution asked for, with the six-plus years he has spent in jail credited against the sentence. In addition, he will concurrently serve (in other words, no extra prison time) for two other crimes: hiring an assassin to kill the informant who turned him in and the attempted murder of an inmate who he thought had insulted the Prophet Mohammed. Both of these crimes indicate a lack of remorse, and indeed a continuing danger of future jihad violence.



Adel Daoud (U.S. Marshals Service photo).

But Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, appointed to the federal bench by Barack Obama, seemed to see Daoud as a victim. From the AP's article on the sentencing:

Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman alluded to secret FBI recordings of Daoud made during the 2012 FBI sting that ensnared him. Coleman said Daoud was uniquely immature at the time, when he was 18, noting how Daoud is heard giggling almost constantly as he brainstorms attacks to avenge what he saw as the West's war on Muslims. At an impressionable age, the judge said the "awkward young man with few friends" was immediately drawn to the 38-year-old FBI agent who first met with Daoud. Daoud promptly began tossing out ideas to impress the agent posing as a terrorist, once suggesting they mount an attack with "flying cars" packed with explosives. "He continued to do what teenage boys do … talk big," Coleman said.

The perp seemed to appreciate the judge's words:

Daoud didn't react Monday afternoon when the judge announced the sentence, but he smiled and wished Coleman well as the hearing ended.

Judge Coleman also noted the following (via the Chicago Sun-Times):

Judge Coleman, who noted that the hearing was held at the start of the Muslim holy season of Ramadan, as well as Mental Health Month, seemed to agree with the defense portrait of Daoud as a socially awkward, impressionable teenager at the time he encountered an FBI agent posing as a terrorist. The judge noted Daoud's "high-pitched giggle" in taped conversations with the agent, and the fact the teenager used words like "fudge" and "mothercracker" in place of profanities.

Aw, the poor, pious darling. Many mass-murdering jihadis are pious, awkward, angry, and confused.

Prosecutors were disappointed in Judge Coleman's sentence. From the Sun-Times:

Prosecutors had argued last week for a sentence of 40 years in prison, and U.S. Attorney John Lausch told reporters in the Dirksen Federal Building lobby that he was disappointed with the sentence. Daoud also will serve concurrent sentences for two offenses he committed while jailed: attempting to hire someone to kill the informant who set him up in the bomb case and attacking another inmate with a sharpened toothbrush handle. "This gives him a life. We can't ask for anything more than that. This is a terrific result. This gives him his life back," Daoud's lawyer, Thomas Anthony Durkin said. "If the government had its way he would not have a life."

For their part, many media outlets that covered the sentencing seemed to downplay the motivation of jihad. The Chicago Tribune headlined: "Suburban man given 16 years in prison for terrorism plot to blow up crowded downtown Chicago bar."

Yes, we have to watch out for those suburban men, who so often become terrorists.

The Wall Street Journal headlined: "Illinois Man Sentenced to 16 Years for Chicago Bomb Plot."

Yes, Illinois is a dangerous hotbed of terror.

Portraying perpetrators of terror as confused and deserving sympathy is a big mistake, in my view.

Judge Coleman photo credit: Law360.com.

Hat tip: Peter von Buol.