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But the U.S. District Judge, William Young, branded Reid as a terrorist, sentencing the 29-year-old British citizen to life in prison for the Dec. 22, 2001, bombing attempt aboard a Paris-to-Miami American Airlines flight. ``You are not an enemy combatant — you are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war — you are a terrorist. ... To give you that reference, to call you a soldier gives you far too much stature,'' Judge Young said at Thursday's sentencing hearing. ``You are a terrorist, and we do not negotiate with terrorists ... We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.'' Reid boldly denounced U.S. foreign policy before the sentencing. ``Your Government has sponsored the rape and torture of Muslims in the prisons of Egypt and Turkey and Syria and Jordan with their money and with their weapons,'' said Reid, who converted to Islam eight years ago. ``Your Government has killed two million children in Iraq. Oklahoma? If you want to think about something, 20 against two million, I don't see no comparison.'' The Judge dismissed his comments. ``We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid,'' said the judge. ``We are Americans. We have been through the fire before.'' The Judge then pointed to the American flag behind him and said: ``See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten.'' When the Judge instructed a court officer to take Reid into custody, Reid leaned forward and pointed at the judge, raising his voice. ``That flag will be brought down on the day of judgment and you will see in front of your Lord and my Lord and then we will know,'' Reid said. ``You will be judged by Allah!'' Reid said before being taken from the courtroom in handcuffs. Pleading guilty in the case last October, Reid said he was a member of Al-Qaeda, pledged his support to Osama bin Laden and declared himself an enemy of the United States. He admitted he tried to ignite plastic explosives hidden in his shoes on American Airlines Flight 63 about three months after the Sept. 11 attacks. Several of the dozen American Airlines crew members seated in the courtroom on Thursday looked stunned as Reid delivered his courtroom denouncement, glancing at each other and shaking their heads. One woman wept. Prosecutors said there was enough plastic explosives in his shoes to blow a hole in the fuselage and kill all 197 people aboard. Reid had tried furiously to light a match to his shoes but he was unable to ignite the fuse. Passengers and crew members overpowered him, using seat belts and their own belts to strap him to his seat. Two doctors sedated him, and the flight was diverted to Boston. Reid's lawyers say he credits Islam with saving him from a life of drug use and despair. They described Reid's troubled youth plagued by poverty, feelings of uselessness, racism and crime. The case is not closed. The FBI thinks Reid had help making the bomb from ``an Al-Qaeda bomb maker,'' and authorities have said they found unidentified hair and a palm print on the explosives. Reid pleaded guilty to eight charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Besides his sentence, Reid was fined $2 millions.
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