An illegal alien Muslim from Jordan caught in an FBI sting trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper has been sentenced to 24 years in federal prison

Hosam Smadi had faced up to life in prison but received a reduced sentence after pleading guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi, 20, will likely be deported after serving his sentence. Smadi acknowledged leaving what he thought was a truck bomb in a garage beneath the Fountain Place building in September 2009. Smadi said he parked the truck, activated a timer connected to the decoy provided by undercover FBI agents, then rode away to watch the explosion. Smadi dialed a cell phone number from the roof of a nearby parking garage, where he had planned to watch the explosion. The number was supposed to set off his truck bomb. It instead alerted tactical agents hiding in a stairwell, who swarmed the rooftop and arrested the teenager.