AHMED RESSAMSlideshow: Timeline Of Ahmed Ressam Case

Buses blocked streets near the federal courthouse as Ressam arrived in a van with black windows, part of a caravan of police vehicles that sped through downtown Seattle before the 8:30 a.m. hearing. Police blocked off 7th and 8th Avenues between Stewart and Virginia.

After hearing 2 1/2 hours of arguments and testimony about Ressam's level of cooperation with federal investigators, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour decided to continue the hearing until July 28.

Video: Ressam Case Takes Unexpected Turn

"It's inherent in the action of my request that there's reason for optimism that his cooperation will improve," Coughenour said. "The world will be in a better place if we set this over."

When the government had finished presenting its case for a 35-year sentence, defense attorney Thomas Hillier began to address the court. Soon the judge interrupted him and asked why, when Ressam's cooperation in two pending terrorism cases could take years off his sentence, the sides were proceeding with sentencing him now.

"I'm mystified that we wanted to go on with the sentencing today," Coughenour said in asking Hillier if the sentencing should be postponed.

"You put us in an uncomfortable position here," the defense attorney said.

"I understand that," the judge said. "It's kind of fun."

Hillier returned to the defense table and consulted with Ressam, his interpreter and other members of the defense team. During nearly 10 minutes of animated discussion, Ressam shook his head and threw up his hands, and Hillier paced the courtroom running his hands through his mop of silver hair.

Finally, an exasperated Hillier told the judge that he would like to move for a three-month delay. The government objected. Prosecutor Mark Bartlett argued that unless Ressam was prepared to promise he would fully cooperate, the sentencing should not be delayed.

But Coughenour gave the defense team three months to persuade Ressam to continue cooperating in two related terrorism cases.

"It strike me that a lot of the details he's not remembering now are details that one would not forget," Coughenour said, referring to defense contentions that Ressam has suffered psychological problems after years of solitary confinement broken by intensive interrogations.

Prosecutors had sought 35 years behind bars for Ressam, 37, saying that he has stopped talking with investigators and thus jeopardized two related terrorism prosecutions.

Ressam's attorneys, who recommended 12 1/2 years, had said he is willing to continue cooperating; he just doesn't remember as much about his alleged co-conspirators as he used to.

Security at the downtown U.S. District Court was extremely tight Wednesday, with heavily armed city police and federal officers stationed outside the building. Police buses were used to block off streets around the courthouse.

Ressam was arrested in Port Angeles in December 1999 as he drove off a ferry from British Columbia. A Customs worker, Diana Dean, noticed that Ressam, who had been suffering from malaria, seemed nervous and sweaty. Ressam ran as agents searched his car, but they caught him about six blocks away.

In his trunk were explosives more powerful than TNT and digital watches that could be used as timers. Because Ressam had a one-night reservation for a motel just blocks from Space Needle, Seattle's mayor called off most of the city's celebrations to welcome the year 2000.

After his conviction, Ressam, facing a potential maximum sentence of 130 years, started to talk. For two years, prosecutors and defense lawyers agree, he provided extensive information to U.S. and international investigators about the operation and location of terror camps in Afghanistan as well as the people who ran and trained at them.

But in 2003, defense lawyers called off further talks. Ressam had been mentally fried from long periods of solitary confinement interrupted by intensive interrogations, they said, and he needed time to recover. A psychiatrist suggested Ressam be taken out of solitary confinement, a change that was effected about a year ago.

Prosecutors said Ressam stopped cooperating because he had obtained what he wanted from the government: a motion for a substantial reduction in his potential sentence.

Ressam, one of seven children from a poor family in Algeria, bounced around North Africa and France before arriving in Canada with a fake French passport. He was not immediately deported, however, and began engaging in petty crime before falling in with a group of extremist Muslims. His new friends helped him travel to Afghanistan in 1998 and '99, where he attended three terror camps before returning to Montreal, court documents said.

Other would-be members of his new terrorism cell were detained by immigration authorities in other countries, and Ressam was left to carry out his self-directed mission largely on his own. One friend in Montreal, Samir Ait Mohamed, was recruited to help him obtain a gun and fake passports, prosecutors alleged. They said Abu Doha helped orchestrate Ressam's plot.

Both have been indicted in New York based on Ressam's testimony and are awaiting extradition to the United States. Prosecutors have said that without better continued cooperation from Ressam, they will have to let those men go free.