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| Court told Ft. Lewis soldier was an al-Qaeda supporter |
| 2004-05-12 |
| A U.S. Army enlisted man, Specialist Ryan Anderson, shared his plans to join al Qaeda and attack U.S. forces in Iraq with a Montana woman posing as a Muslim sympathizer, she told a military court on Wednesday. Anderson was troubled at the prospect of fighting "on the wrong side" as his unit prepared to ship out to Iraq last February, Shannen Rossmiller, a judge from Conrad, Montana, who joined a private group monitoring Muslim extremists, said. She testified at the start of a two-day hearing to determine if Anderson should go before a court martial, where he could face the death penalty if convicted. Rossmiller said she contacted Anderson by email after reading a posting on the web site www.bravemuslims.org reading "...soon, very soon, I will have an opportunity to take my own end of the struggle." Anderson, who called himself Amir Abdul Rashid, feared he would be killed before he could correct the "mistake" of joining the U.S. military and was troubled by the prospect of facing "a brother" on the Muslim side, Rossmiller testified. Rossmiller said she reassured him: "It's never too late to do Allah's will." Anderson, 26, is a tank crew member from Lynnwood, Washington, near Seattle, who converted to Islam and has written several letters to newspapers strongly opposing gun control. Rossmiller said she found Anderson's personal profile posted on a web page, which showed a photo of a man wearing a red headscarf and toting a military rifle. She became interested in extremists after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijack attacks in the United States and began to spend several hours a day monitoring web traffic. She later formed a private, nonprofit group performing "counterintelligence" called "Seven Seas," with a web address of www.7/seas.net. Group members contacted the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI when they encountered potentially dangerous people, Rossmiller said. Undercover agents posing as al Qaeda operatives later contacted Anderson, who passed on diagrams of M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams battle tanks with instructions on their vulnerabilities, military prosecutors have said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 a judge huh? Nice try on impeaching the witness. Kiss your traitor ass goodbye, dickhead |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-12 9:03:25 PM |
| #5 The correct link mentioned in the article is http://www.7-seas.net/ Of course, Routers just made a simple mistake... |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2004-05-12 8:48:38 PM |
| #4 If the military has the case, they need to make an example of this guy and go for the death penalty. Except it will be under the UCMJ and an execution would be done without a snuffy video, unlike the Jihadis. I also hope that Muslims in the military, especially these so-called chaplains, are vetted. The tribal loyalty of the muslims threatens the military's mission, and cannot be ignored. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nome 2004-05-12 8:38:55 PM |
| #3 Traitor - death penalty |
| Posted by: jawa 2004-05-12 7:44:21 PM |
| #2 Holy shit. That Shannen Rossmiller chick is BADASS. :< |
| Posted by: Anon666 2004-05-12 7:39:40 PM |
| #1 And our favorite Muslim Chaplin (Yee) was there too.... More info at this Seattle KOMO TV News story: (EFL) Among those at Anderson's hearing was Capt. James Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Fort Lewis who until recently was embroiled in an investigation of suspected espionage at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Wednesday's proceeding at this Army base south of Tacoma was an Article 32 hearing, similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian court. After hearing the Army's evidence against Anderson, the investigating officer, Col. Patrick J. Reinert, will recommend whether he should face a court martial. Reinert's recommendation will go to the base commander at Fort Lewis, Lt. Gen. Edward Soriano, who will decide whether Anderson will be tried. Anderson was arrested after Army investigators alleged he gave information to undercover U.S. agents, apparently believing they were part of al-Qaida. Initially, he was charged with four counts of trying to communicate with terrorists. The Army added a fifth charge last month, which was not disclosed to the media until Wednesday. It alleges that at one point, Anderson told undercover military personnel: "I wish to desert from the U.S. Army. I wish to defect from the United States. I wish to join al-Qaida, train its members and conduct terrorist attacks." |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-05-12 7:09:52 PM |