FORT LEWIS – Jurors deciding the fate of a Lynnwood soldier saw a 61-minute video Tuesday of Spc. Ryan G. Anderson telling two men how to disable U.S. weapons and kill American soldiers.
In a matter-of-fact fashion, Anderson talked about vulnerable points of the M1 battle tank and told men posing as al-Qaida terrorists that he wanted to defect.
The chilling account was aired before a panel of nine commissioned officers who will determine if Anderson, a 1995 Cascade High School graduate, is guilty of attempted treason in his court-martial trial in Fort Lewis.
Much of the information disclosed by Anderson would have been effective, said John Rowe, an Army expert on the Abrams tank.
Rowe, a Michigan project manager for testing the Abrams in battle conditions, said Anderson correctly described reducing the effectiveness of the tank by damaging the primary gun sight. He also said Anderson disclosed several other methods of disabling the tank or killing soldiers.
Anderson, 27, is accused of five counts of trying to disclose vital military information to members of the al-Qaida terrorist network.
The tape, secretly recorded Feb. 9 at a Seattle Center parking garage, is the same secretly recorded video the government showed in a May hearing when a judge recommended that Anderson face a general court-martial.
Moments before the video was shown, Anderson told the trial judge that he agreed actions described in one of the five counts against him, if proved, would be disloyal acts harmful to the good order and discipline of the armed services. That stipulation is expected to eliminate the need for some prosecution witnesses.
Anderson, a tank driver, was a member of the Washington National Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade, which was nearing a yearlong deployment to Iraq when he was arrested Feb. 12.
He has pleaded innocent, and his defense attorney has told jurors he had no intention of committing a crime.
On tape, Anderson was asked by an undercover agent how he could kill the crew but not destroy the tank. Anderson said he knew a way, and was “amazed this has not happened yet,” he told the agents.
Anderson referred to a handle on the outside of the tank. By pulling it, he said that would flood the engine compartment with fire retardant and the crew would be forced out, where they could be killed. However, Rowe testified that wouldn’t happen.
An al-Qaida expert from Virginia, Christopher Wallace, told the jury he has reviewed a transcript of the taped meeting and Anderson’s statements.
“I believed that information would have been helpful to al-Qaida,” Wallace testified.
Much of Tuesday’s testimony was spent in closed-door sessions with the jury hearing classified or otherwise sensitive information. The news media and other witnesses were excluded from that testimony.
Anderson had no intention of committing a crime, his defense attorney told the jurors on Monday. Maj. Joseph Morse said his client is prone to lie and exaggerate, and he talks about things he doesn’t know much about, but is not a traitor.
The defense is expected to have mental experts this week testify on Anderson’s behalf.
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