Here in New York, a 24-year-old Pakistani immigrant has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to bomb the Herald Square subway station. Shahawar Matin Siraj was arrested days before the Republican National Convention in 2004. Attorneys for Siraj said he was set up by a police informant and that the informant was the one who pushed the bombing. Siraj had no explosives, no timetable for an attack and little understanding about explosives.

Attorney Martin Stolar: “It makes him a symbol of the war on terror rather than the sentencing of an individual human being. It’s unfortunate that the New York City Police Department created a crime in order to solve it and claim a victory for the war on terror. The sentence of 30 years is draconian, totally draconian.”