Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza sentenced

Islamic cleric Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, known as "Abu Hamza," was sentenced Friday to life in prison after being convicted of terrorism charges in plots to kidnap tourists in Yemen in 1998 and build a terrorist training camp in Oregon. The judge who sentenced him called his actions "barbaric" and "misguided."

In May, Abu Hamza was convicted on all 11 charges he faced for aiding terrorists who kidnapped tourists in Yemen and conspiring to open a terror training camp in Bly, Oregon. Four tourists were killed in the Yemen kidnapping.

Lawyers for Abu Hamza had urged the judge to take into account that their client will have a particularly hard time in prison because he is missing hands and forearms and has other ailments.

In court papers, Abu Hamza's attorneys said he would face unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment if his amputated forearms, psoriasis, diabetes and high blood pressure weren't taken into account at sentencing in Manhattan federal court. They recommended a prison term of less than life.

They told U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest that housing the 56-year-old Abu Hamza at Colorado's Supermax federal prison, sometimes referred to as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies," would violate assurances the United States made to British judges to secure his 2012 extradition to America.

Prosecutors said in court papers Friday that the government never promised the United Kingdom that Abu Hamza would not be assigned to Supermax.

Prosecutors also insisted life in prison was the only appropriate sentence, saying that at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, Abu Hamza worked "tirelessly to drive his young, impressionable followers to participate in acts of violence and murder across the globe."

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin called Abu Hamza "an unrepentant all-purpose terrorist," and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declared, "Abu Hamza's blood-soaked journey from cleric to convict, from Imam to inmate, is now complete."

In 1998, Yemeni militants kidnapped 16 tourists, including two U.S. citizens. Abu Hamza acted as an intermediary for the hostage-takers and advised their leader. The Yemeni military attempted to rescue the hostages, but the kidnappers used the hostages as human shields. As a result, four were killed.

A year later, Abu Hamza tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon.

CBS Senior National Security Analyst Juan Zarate said, "It's been a long time coming, but it's important that one of the long-standing and chief ideologues in the West is held accountable for not just propagating a destructive ideology but supporting terrorist activity around the world."

Zarate noted that Abu Hamza was an important figure in radicalizing operatives in the West, primarily in Europe. The sentence came on the same day that the two suspects in the terror attack on a French newspaper--at least one of whom had links to al Qaeda-affiliates-- were killed by police, northeast of Paris.