(MCT) — SEATTLE—When Ahmed Ressam appears in federal court in Seattle on Wednesday morning, it will be the third time U.S. District Judge John Coughenour will try to craft a sentence for the would-be “millennium bomber” while trying to balance the “horrific” nature of his intended crime, the safety of the American people and the value of intelligence the Algerian provided about al-Qaida and its operation in the dark days after the 9/11 attacks.

On two previous occasions, in 2005 and 2008, Coughenour has imposed 22-year sentences against Ressam for attempting to bring powerful bomb-making materials into the U.S. from Canada on Dec. 14, 1999, with plans to build and detonate a powerful bomb at Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebration. Ressam had trained in al-Qaida-sponsored training camps in Afghanistan and was part of a larger terrorist cell based in Montreal with ties to Islamic terrorists in France and Bosnia.