White supremacist jailed for 8 years for plot to kill Muslims and Barack Obama with 'death ray' device

A man has been sentenced to at least eight years in prison for his role in a plot to build a radiation emitting "death ray" intended to harm Muslims, "enemies of Israel" and US president Barack Obama.

Eric Feight, 55, from the state of New York, pleaded guilty in January to a federal charge of providing material support to terrorists and also admitted helping accomplice Glendon Scott Crawford to modify an "industrial-grade" radiation device - which was dubbed a "death ray" by the US tabloid press.

Feight also helped self-proclaimed Ku Klux Klansman Crawford to build a device which allowed the ray to be operated remotely.

US attorney Richard Hartunian said:

The pair were arrested in 2013 and charged with a plot to unleash radiation at a mosque in Albany, New York and a nearby Muslim school.

A recording played at their trial also revealed they had planned to attack the White House. In the clip, Crawford referred to the device as "Hiroshima on a light switch."

According to the indictment, Crawford approached the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York, Congregation Gates of Heaven in Schenectady and the Israeli Embassy in Washington to ask whether they would help him acquire a commercially available industrial-grade X-ray device to kill "enemies of Israel."

NBC News reports that the religious group declined and reported him to the FBI, which sent in undercover agents in April 2012.

The undercover agents provided the device, which they'd rendered inoperable, the FBI said.

Ex-industrial engineer Crawford was found guilty in August of using a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to build a radiological dispersal device and a third, undisclosed, charge.

He faces a mandatory 25 years to life in prison and a $2 million fine for the radiological dispersal and another mandatory life charge for the weapon of mass destruction charge.