TRAITOR MUSLIM SOLDIERS
Soldier said he wanted to attack Fort Hood troops
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 28, 2011 6:04 p.m. EDT
Killeen, Texas (CNN) -- An AWOL Muslim American Army private arrested near Fort Hood has told investigators that he wanted to attack fellow soldiers at the military base, the police chief in Killeen, Texas, said Thursday.
"Military personnel were a target of this suspect," Chief Dennis Baldwin told reporters about Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, who is expected to face federal charges. Baldwin said Abdo, who was arrested Wednesday, had no accomplices, "as far as I know."
He added, "We are not aware of any additional threats to the safety of our community."
FBI agents discovered potential bomb-making materials in Abdo's hotel room, FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said. Abdo, 21, had refused to deploy to Afghanistan and later went AWOL from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, after being charged with possession of child pornography, Vasys said.
After a tip-off on Tuesday from a local gun shop, Killeen police arrested Abdo at a traffic stop, officials said. He was taken into custody without incident and is being held in Killeen City Jail.
"He's a very dangerous individual and he is where he needs to be," Baldwin said.
Asked how close Abdo may have come to pulling off an attack, Baldwin said, "I can tell you that we would probably be here today giving you a different briefing had he not been stopped."
Fort Hood is the Texas military base where a 2009 shooting spree left 13 people dead. Another Muslim American soldier, Maj. Nidal Hasan, has been charged in those killings.
Killeen is also where, in 1991, George Hennard crashed his pickup into a Luby's cafeteria, fatally shot 23 people and wounded another 20 before killing himself.
"We've been through a lot in this community," Baldwin said. "But I can tell you that's when the character of the community is more obvious."
"Thanks to quick action by a Texas gun dealer in alerting local police to a suspicious character, and a prompt and vigorous response by the Killeen Police Department, we may well have averted a repeat of the tragic 2009 radical Islamic terror attack on our nation's largest military installation," said Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, the House Army Caucus chairman.
"We now have an example of what works to prevent these type attacks, and as the coming days reveal more details about this attempt, we can determine better ways to thwart similar efforts in the future," Carter said.
Carter's office said Killeen gun shop Guns Galore, the same store used by Hasan to purchase weapons allegedly used in his attack, tipped off police concerning a "suspicious male" who purchased gunpowder, shotgun ammunition, and a magazine for a semiautomatic handgun.
Greg Ebert, a retired police officer who works at Guns Galore, said a young man showed up in the store Tuesday afternoon and browsed for about 20 minutes. He selected six one-pound canisters of smokeless gunpowder, Ebert said.
Then, Ebert said, the man asked the store owner questions about the nature of smokeless powder.
"That is a red flag for me," Ebert said. "He should know. Why is he buying that much?"
Ebert said the man also picked up one magazine and shotgun shells, and then left in a cab. After discussing the matter at length with the owner, Ebert called police.
The soldier also purchased uniforms with Fort Hood unit patches from a local military surplus store, Carter's office said, citing police.
After Abdo's arrest, police searched his hotel room and backpack and found six pounds of smokeless powder, Christmas lights and battery-operated clocks -- which were apparently intended to create a timing and triggering device -- sugar, shrapnel, a pressure cooker, and shotgun shells that were being dismantled for raw explosives, a Defense Department official told CNN.
The materials were enough to make two bombs, the official said.
In the soldier's backpack, police also found "Islamic extremist literature," a .40-caliber pistol and components that could be used in a bomb, a law enforcement official said.
A statement on the Fort Hood website acknowledged Abdo's arrest but said it had no connection to the base.
It said the private first class had been assigned to Company E of the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team.
"Since he is in the custody of civilian authorities, jurisdiction over any potential new charges is yet to be determined. If returned to military control, he may face additional charges including AWOL," the statement said.
Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug said base officials have received no indication that Abdo tried to get onto Fort Hood between the time he went AWOL and the time of his arrest.
Abdo, who joined the infantry in 2009, refused to deploy to Afghanistan on religious grounds. The Army approved his request to be discharged as a conscientious objector, but on May 13, he was charged with possession of child pornography on his computer, according to the statement.
After a June 15 hearing, at which Abdo was recommended for court-martial, he went AWOL.
In media interviews last year, Abdo said he felt compelled to remain true to his faith.
"We have two things that I believe make us American, and that's freedom of religion and freedom of choice," he said.
When he signed up for the military, Abdo said he had not thought that his religious beliefs would be an issue. "I was under the impression that I could serve both the U.S. Army and my God simultaneously," he said.
But as his deployment neared, he began to rethink things and eventually worked up the courage to approach his unit and tell them how he felt, he said.
"Islam is a much more peaceful and tolerant religion than it is an aggressive religion," he said. "I don't believe that Islam allows me to operate in any kind of warfare at all, including the U.S. military and any war it partakes in. I believe that our first duty as a Muslim is to serve God."
After Abdo's arrest, Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a statement calling it "a sobering reminder of the importance of remaining vigilant in the ongoing efforts to protect our communities from those that would do us harm."
Hasan, the prime suspect in the 2009 Fort Hood killings, could face the death penalty. His trial is set to begin March 5, 2012.
Fort Hood shooter asked about killing Americans in 2008
(AFP)
December 23, 2009
WASHINGTON Nidal Hasan, the US soldier who killed 13 people at an attack on Fort Hood military base last month, sought advice about murdering US troops in 2008, a Yemeni imam told Al-Jazeera on Wednesday.
Hasan, a Muslim Army psychiatrist, faces 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in connection with the November 5 shooting attack at the Texas military facility.
On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera's Arabic-language website published an interview with US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who said he and Hasan communicated by email for over a year about the permissibility of killing US soldiers and Israeli civilians.
"The first message I received from Nidal was on 17 December 2008," Aulaqi told the interviewer, adding that Hasan initiated the email communication.
"He asked about killing American soldiers and officers and whether that was legitimate or not," Aulaqi said.
Links between the Muslim cleric and Hasan are already being investigated, but the interview reveals for the first time how long the two men knew each other and communicated, and also offers insight into how early Hasan was thinking about the possibility of attacking fellow servicemembers.
Aulaqi, a US-born preacher, said he met Hasan nine years earlier at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Washington, DC and the pair begin communicating after Aulaqi left the United States for Yemen.
"The first message was on the rules about a Muslim soldier who serves in the American army and kills his fellow (soldiers)," Aulaqi said.
"And in a group of his messages, Nidal explained his view on the killing of Israeli civilians, which he supported," he added.
Aulaqi denied having suggested the attack on Fort Hood, but said he supported Hasan's actions, adding that Hasan was motivated by long-standing grievances against the US military.
"The target that Nidal targeted was a military target inside the United States and not anything else," Aulaqi said.
"I didn't recruit Nidal Hasan and in fact America recruited him with its crimes and injustices and that is something that America does not want to recognize."
Hasan, who is paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by a police officer during the attack, is being held at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio pending trial.
The Pentagon has launched an investigation into the shootings to determine whether warning signs were missed and to prevent such an assault from happening again.
Twelve soldiers and one civilian were killed in the attack. Another 42 people were wounded.
British soldier 'sent coded spy offer to Iran'
October 13, 2008
LONDON, England (AP) -- A British Army interpreter in Afghanistan sent a coded message to an Iranian military attache offering to spy for the country of his birth, prosecutors said at the opening of his trial Monday.
Prosecutors said that Cpl. Daniel James -- who was working as a translator for former Gen. David Richards, the NATO commander in Afghanistan -- sent the message, which ended with the phrase, "I am at your service" to the attache in Kabul.
"The defendant's loyalty to this country wavered and his loyalties turned to Iran, the country of his birth," prosecutor Mark Dennis told a jury at London's Old Bailey court. "He turned his back on those with whom he was serving in Afghanistan and sought to become an agent for a foreign power."
James, 45, denies communicating information useful to an enemy and collecting the information -- two NATO situation reports -- on a USB memory device. He also denies willful misconduct in public office.
James was born was born Esmail Mohammed Beigi Gamasai in Iran and moved as a teenager to Britain, where he later changed his name and became a citizen.
He joined the British reserves in 1987, and was called up to serve a tour in Afghanistan in March 2006.
Two months later, he was appointed translator for Richards, who was then the overall commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
"This assignment gave the defendant a very trusted and sensitive position," Dennis said in his opening statement, adding that James was "something of a Walter Mitty character." The description refers to a character who fantasized about being a hero in a story by the late American author James Thurber.
In an interview with police after his arrest in December 2006, James complained about his lack of promotion and officers who he said were racist and impeded his progress, the prosecutor said.
Dennis said James sent coded messages to an Iranian military assistant based at Tehran's embassy in Kabul. It wasn't clear if James was attempting to audition for a position as an agent or if he'd already been accepted, the prosecutor said.
"The concern is not so much the actual damage done by the known disclosure of information, but in the potential damage that could have occurred if his activities had not been curtailed by his early detection and arrest," Dennis said.
The trial is expected to last three or four weeks. Some portions are expected to be heard in secret.
Al-Qaeda-link soldier gets life
A US
National Guard soldier was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of
trying to aid the al-Qaeda network, authorities said today.
Specialist Ryan Anderson, who converted to Islam, was
sentenced by a nine-officer jury in a court martial at the Fort Lewis Army base
south of Seattle, in the northwestern state of Washington.
"He was sentenced to confinement for life with possibility of parole and a dishonorable discharge, with reduction to the rank of private," a military statement said.
The Army had decided before the court martial that it would not to seek the death penalty.
The 27-year-old soldier was found guilty this week on five counts of attempting to give intelligence and aid to al-Qaeda.
He was accused of seeking to collaborate with the terror group by sending it information on US army tactics and strategies. He declared his innocence to the five charges on August 9.
Anderson, who joined the National Guard in May 2002, was reported to have attempted to make contact with al-Qaeda through Internet chat rooms.
His activities were uncovered by Shannen Rossmiller, a municipal judge from Montana, who in her spare time sought to catch terrorists on the Internet.
Judge Rossmiller told prosecutors that while she was monitoring a website devoted to radical Muslims she happened upon an e-mail posting from one "Amid Abdul Rashid", who turned out to be Anderson.
The judge, masquerading as an extremist Muslim, began to correspond with Anderson. When she found out that he was a soldier, she contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Anderson was arrested in February at his apartment in Lynnwood, Washington, just before his unit was to deploy to Iraq. An undercover sting operation had intercepted communications on January 23 and February 10.
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907
In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in
good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be
treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to
discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American,
and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man
who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag.... We have room for but one
language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one
sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.