A federal judge has sentenced a Pakistani-born Chicago taxi driver to seven and a half years in prison for attempting to financially support al Qaeda's operations in his homeland

Raja Lahrasib Khan, 58, pleaded guilty in February 2012 to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Khan, who was born in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir but became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988, admitted that between the mid-2000s and 2009, he gave about $550 to Ilyas Kashmiri, a member of the Kashmir independence movement. Although Khan wanted to finance attacks against India, which also claims the divided region and has fought several wars with Pakistan, prosecutors said that Khan knew Kashmiri was working with al Qaeda, the group responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities and other acts of violence. In 2010, an undercover law enforcement agent posing as someone interested in sending money to Kashmiri met several times with Khan. The agent told Khan that he was interested in giving money to Kashmiri - but only if Kashmiri was working with al Qaeda. The agent told Khan that he was also interested in sending individuals into Pakistan to receive military training so they could conduct attacks against U.S. forces and interests. Khan agreed to act as an intermediary and accepted $1,000 from the agent. He was arrested shortly after that. U.S. District Judge James Zagel has sentenced Khan to 90 months in federal prison and to lifetime supervision after his release. Before handing down the sentence, Zagel said that Khan's decision to aid al Qaeda after voluntarily choosing to become a U.S. citizen was a profoundly aggravating factor.