Evidence aired in spying case

FORT LEWIS – Army Spec. Ryan G. Anderson eagerly explained to two people posing as Islamic terrorists how to kill crew members of an M1A1 Abrams tank, yet leave the tank undamaged.

The discussion was captured in a video shown Wednesday at a military hearing to determine if Anderson will face a general court-martial that could send the Everett man to a military prison – or to a military execution.

Military prosecutors opened their case against Anderson by showing the video and digital messages that Anderson sent people who were posing as members of the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Using a military sketch of the Army’s main battle tank, Anderson jotted down marks indicating vulnerable points while the two Army counterintelligence agents watched.

Particularly chilling was Anderson’s explanation of how to flood the tank’s engine with fire retardant, temporarily disabling the tank and forcing the crew out so they could be killed.

“I love my homeland,” he told the two men while parked in a car Feb. 9 near Seattle Center in Seattle. But he also said his country “has taken the wrong way.”

The National Guard member’s Lynnwood unit had been called up for a year’s deployment in Iraq, and Anderson explained that was the reason why he wanted to defect.

The Army was asking him to fight and perhaps die “for something I don’t believe in,” he told the two Army agents. He said he wouldn’t mind fighting here to protect his homeland.

The agents secretly recorded the hourlong meeting.

The hearing continues today. It is being conducted in front of an investigative officer who will recommend whether to bring Anderson to a full military trial.

The Article 32 hearing is a military investigative tool similar to a civilian grand jury. It is designed to determine if there are enough facts to go forward with military prosecution.

Anderson, 26, is accused of violating three sections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, one of them three times.

Charging papers accuse him of giving his passport picture, military identification and other documents to supposed terrorists. He’s also accused of trying to pass on information about troop strength, movements, equipment and methods of killing Army personnel.

In a charge that was added by the Army in April, he allegedly told agents he wanted to desert from the Army and “defect from the United States.”

“I wish to join al-Qaida, train its members and conduct terrorist attacks,” he is reported to have said.

Anderson’s apparent displeasure with the United States came to the attention of federal officials when they were alerted by an amateur terrorist sleuth from Conrad, Mont., who surfs the Internet for sites catering to terrorist organizations.

Judge Shannen Rossmiller told hearing officer Col. Patrick Reinert that she regularly spends hours a day working with six others around the world in what they call the 7Seas global intelligence team.

She testified that she got on to Anderson in October when she saw a posting from someone calling himself Amir Abdul Rashid on one of the Web sites that cater to terrorist ideologies.

She sent a notice calling for a jihad against the United States, and got a reply from the person calling himself Rashid, who she later tracked to Anderson, she told the court.

She corresponded with him repeatedly, and he at one point told her he was a “brother from the far side of the world. I am committed to freedom and peace of my Muslim brothers everywhere.”

She notified the Homeland Security Department and was contacted by the FBI, triggering a joint federal investigation and the sting operation that videotaped Anderson.

Anderson grew up in Everett, graduated from Cascade High School and went on to Washington State University, where he majored in history. He grew up a Lutheran but converted to Islam several years ago.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.

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