CHICAGO: A Lebanese immigrant in Chicago was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison Thursday for plotting an attack and planting what he thought was a bomb near the city’s Wrigley Field baseball park. Sami Samir Hassoun, 25, pleaded guilty last year to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and an explosive device after he placed what he thought was a homemade bomb in a garbage can in the north-side neighborhood during a busy Saturday night, according to court records.

He told an FBI informant and undercover agents he wanted to expose the city’s inadequate security measures and embarrass then-Chicago Mayor Richard Daley into resigning, the criminal complaint against him said. It gave no further details as to motive.In a series of planning meetings secretly tape-recorded by the FBI, Hassoun suggested various attacks including unleashing a virus on the city, poisoning its water supply, bombing the landmark Willis Tower skyscraper, attacking police officers or assassinating the mayor.