A federal judge has given 18 years in prison to Jeffrey Battle and Patrice Lumumba Ford, who were part of a U.S.-based al Qaeda cell that tried to leave the U.S. and take arms with the Taliban against American service men and women.

According to the Justice Department:

In their guilty pleas, Battle and Ford admitted that following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by al Qaeda, they met at various times in the Portland area with others to plan for travel to fight in Afghanistan against the armed forces of the United States.

Ford also admitted that after the September 11th attacks, he purchased a shotgun and then conducted weapons training on two occasions at a gravel pit in Washougal, Washington, with other co-defendants. Battle and Ford admitted that they and several other defendants flew to China in an unsuccessful attempt to gain entry into Pakistan, en route to Afghanistan.

While a number of people who oppose the Patriot Act have had trouble coming up with a single, solitary instance of a law-abiding citizen who has had their rights violated as a result of the law, Battle is actually an example of how the Patriot Act saves lives and hurts terrorists.

In testimony to Congress earlier this year, Attorney General John Ashcroft revealed that wiretaps caught Battle, on tape, explaining why the Portland cell of al Qaeda had trouble getting its act together. According to Ashcroft, Battle was caught saying:

``Everybody's scared to give up any money to help us. You know what I'm saying? Because that law that Bush wrote about, you know, supporting terrorism, whatever, the whole thing...Everybody's scared...He made a law that says for instance I left out of the country and I fought, right, but I wasn't able to afford a ticket but you bought my plane ticket, you gave me the money to do it...By me going and me fighting and doing that they can, by this new law, they can come and take you and put you in jail.

And, as Battle found out, they sure can.