FORT LEWIS – Spc. Ryan G. Anderson walked up to his sergeant on Feb. 11 and mumbled something about no longer speaking to members of his family.
As Anderson and his sergeant walked into a military mess hall, Anderson said that “they” had contacted him, Sgt. Francisco Velez testified Wednesday in Anderson’s court-martial.
“I thought it was a strange way to start a conversation,” Velez told the nine commissioned officers who will decide Anderson’s fate on attempted treason charges.
As they got their meal and sat down, Anderson repeated that “they” had talked to him. Then he whispered loudly, so people across the table heard him and stared. “He said they, al-Qaida,” Velez said.
By that time, Velez, Anderson’s supervisor, had been warned by Army counterintelligence officers that they were investigating the Lynnwood soldier.
Two days before, Anderson had met with two agents posing as operatives of the al-Qaida terrorist network. At that meeting, Anderson disclosed numerous ways to disable American war vehicles. Those disclosures form the basis of five criminal counts, which could net the Washington National Guard soldier a life prison term.
Anderson has pleaded innocent, and his defense attorneys on Wednesday produced evidence of a mental defect. The jury is scheduled to hear closing arguments and start deliberations today.
The strange disclosure to Velez came as rebuttal evidence. Soldiers are supposed to immediately report improper contacts, such as with supposed terrorists. But Velez testified he asked Anderson if he had told al-Qaida agents anything. Anderson said he had not.
The jurors, however, saw a secretly recorded hourlong video of Anderson matter-of-factly telling agents how to disable M1A1 Abrams tanks and Humvee and Stryker military vehicles.
Anderson, a 1995 Cascade High School graduate and a member of the National Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade, was arrested the day after his discussion with Velez, just before his unit was to be deployed to Iraq.
The defense hopes that mental health evidence will help Anderson’s case.
Dr. Jack Norris, a neuropsychologist at Madigan Army Medical Center, diagnosed Anderson as bipolar and said the soldier also has an unspecified personality disorder that makes him prone to exaggerate, lie, fixate on normal activities, and which makes him a “social misfit.”
The defense hopes to show that Anderson was prone to role playing and was an easy target for Army and FBI agents to lure into making damaging statements to people he believed were terrorists.
Defense attorney Maj. Joseph Morse insisted at the start of the trial that Anderson never intended to commit a crime.
Norris said Anderson has wide mood swings. The defendant’s personality disorder makes it hard for him to get along in daily life, Norris testified. “He has for most of his life been socially awkward and has not had many friends.”
Dr. Russell Hicks, a psychiatrist at Madigan, also testified that Anderson was bipolar. He diagnosed Anderson with a mental condition known as Asperger’s syndrome, which impairs cognitive functions while demonstrating “a marked inability to perform social interaction.”
Hicks testified that despite Anderson’s mental problems, he had the ability to tell right from wrong.
Likewise, Norris was asked about Anderson’s role playing.
“I believe he knew the difference between his role playing and the reality around him,” Norris testified.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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