Jordanian man gets 24 years for attempting to blow up Dallas skyscraper

A 20-year-old Jordanian man was sentenced Tuesday to 24 years in prison for attempting to bomb a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas in September 2009, the Justice Department said.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi originally pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction after his arrest last year, which followed an undercover sting operation.

But the Justice Department said in May that Smadi had changed his plea to guilty after agreeing to a plea deal.

"The court's sentence of Mr. Smadi sends a clear message that there is a serious price to be paid by those who may be willing to carry out acts of violence in this country to further terrorist cause," Assistant Attorney General David Kris said.

Federal agents arrested Smadi in Dallas in late September after he dialed a cell phone number in an attempt to trigger a truck bomb he had parked underneath the office building.

Arabic-speaking American agents posing as Al-Qaeda members provided him with the fake bomb, which they say he asked for and wanted to detonate.

The undercover agents had developed a relationship with the young Jordanian since encountering him in an Islamic extremist forum in January last year.