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Wannabe terrorist may get 15 years

Pa. man will be sentenced today

PITTSBURGH — Prosecutors in Western Pennsylvania will be seeking a 15-year sentence against a man who pleaded guilty to using the Internet to promote terror attacks against American military and civilian targets in posts he made on an Islamic extremist Web forum he moderated.

Emerson Begolly, 24, of New Bethlehem, Armstrong County, also pleaded guilty to having a loaded pistol when he allegedly bit two FBI agents who tried to question him before his arrest in January 2011.

Begolly faces a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison on the weapons charge and up to 10 years on the one count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

Begolly will be sentenced today.

The hearing will take place before Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice Cohill.

His public defender is expected to ask for leniency in exchange for information Begolly has allegedly provided in other terror-related investigations.

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