Seattle ? An Algerian who plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium was sentenced to 22 years in prison Wednesday by a judge who used the opportunity to sternly criticize the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism tactics.

“We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel,” U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said. “The message to the world from today’s sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart.”

The sentence against Ahmed Ressam was significantly lower than the 35 years recommended by prosecutors, but it could have been even shorter had Ressam agreed to testify against two of his alleged co-conspirators.

Ressam, 38, cooperated with the government for about two years, but had quit by 2003, claiming the many months of solitary confinement had taken their toll on his mental state.

Ressam was arrested in Port Angeles in December 1999 as he drove off a ferry from British Columbia with 124 pounds of bomb-making materials. Ressam had a one-night reservation for a hotel in Seattle, prompting the mayor to cancel New Year’s Eve celebrations at the Space Needle.

After being convicted of terrorist conspiracy and explosives charges at his 2001 trial, Ressam began cooperating in hopes of winning a reduced sentence. His information was given to anti-terrorism agents around the world – in one case, helping prevent the potential detonation of the shoe bomb that Richard Reid attempted to blow up aboard an American Airlines flight in December 2001.