Friday May 12, 2017
An American-born al-Qaida member turned informant will be freed from federal prison after providing valuable information to U.S. authorities.A federal judge in New York sentenced Bryant Neal Vinas on Thursday to the time he has already served — more than eight years — plus three months. The 34-year-old native New Yorker will be on probation for the rest of his life."To say that the defendant provided substantial assistance to the government is an understatement," prosecutors wrote in court filings. "He may have been the single most valuable cooperating witness" in several al-Qaida-related cases.The information Vinas provided about al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan helped identify suspected terrorists, their hideouts and disrupted plots.