A Muslim convert was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday for plotting to bomb a U.S. military recruiting station near Baltimore in revenge for what he claimed was an American "war on Islam." Antonio Martinez, who assumed the name Muhammad Hussain after his recent conversion, pled guilty to the plot in January and will face the maximum sentence.
Martinez made little attempt to hide his anti-Western feelings or even his plot to detonate a car bomb outside the recruitment center. He was turned down by several other individuals he attempted to employ as co-conspirators. Despite a friend's attempt to dissuade him from pursuing the attack, Martinez drove an inert car bomb provided by the FBI to the site and tried to detonate it.
The case garnered additional attention to the phenomenon of Hispanic Muslim converts plotting terror, following the highly publicized plots of Jose Padilla and Carlos Almonte. Padilla was convicted of conspiracy to kill people overseas and murder individuals overseas and of providing material support to terrorists, following allegations that he received training from al-Qaida in building and a dirty bomb. Dominican convert Carlos Almonte was apprehended on his way to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, al-Qaida's East African affiliate.