Soldier’s mental health disputed

FORT LEWIS – A Lynnwood soldier betrayed his country, the Army and his fellow soldiers when he contacted people he thought were members of the al-Qaida terrorist network, military jurors were told Monday.

National Guard Spc. Ryan Gibson Anderson, 27, went on trial Monday for attempted treason. He’s accused of trying to hand over information about how to disable American weapons systems and kill U.S. soldiers.

But Anderson’s defense attorney, Maj. Joseph Morse, told members of a court-martial panel that Anderson might live in a fantasy world and might talk a lot, but he did not intend to commit a crime.

Morse portrayed the defendant as a man with a mental illness who was lured by the government into meeting supposed al-Qaida terrorists in a government sting. He said he intends to have two mental health experts testify about Anderson’s mental state.

A panel of nine commissioned officers – six men and six women ranging in rank from second lieutenant to colonel – will judge Anderson.

Under military rules, the jury will not only decide guilt or innocence but also the sentence. If convicted, Anderson could face life in a military prison.

The court-martial trial is expected to go through the week. Six of the jurors must decide beyond a reasonable doubt that’s Anderson is guilty for the case to end in a conviction.

The prosecutor, Maj. Melvin Jenks, outlined the government’s case, telling the jurors that Anderson openly talked about his conversion to Islam, and boldly used the Internet to court al-Qaida terrorists.

He was snared by a private cyber sleuth from an organization bent on tracking threats to the United States and its allies from terrorist organizations, Jenks said.

Anderson met with undercover government agents twice, and one meeting was secretly videotaped. In the other brief meeting at the Lakewood Barnes &Noble bookstore in Pierce County, he turned over a disk with his passport photo.

“At the conclusion, you will be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of all charges and specifications,” Jenks said.

“All is not what it seems,” Morse told the panel. He reminded them of the film “Wizard of Oz” and the fake wizard behind the curtain.

“You have to have the courage to open that curtain,” Morse said. “What you won’t find back there is criminal intent.”

Anderson had no motive for treason or attempting to defect, as the government alleges, he said. Instead, Morse said, Anderson just talked a lot, often trying to impress people with his knowledge of Islam and guns.

What’s more, Anderson has an unspecified mental disorder, Morse said.

The woman who alerted the government to Anderson, Shannen Rossmiller of Conrad, Mont., testified she noticed his posting on an extremist Muslim Web site using a Muslim name, Amir Abdul Rashid. Rossmiller said she easily tracked that identity through other Internet postings to Anderson. She’s a member of 7-Seas Global Intelligence, an amateur terrorist-hunting organization.

Rossmiller e-mailed Anderson and started a correspondence that was later taken over by Army intelligence agents and the FBI.

The prosecutor presented evidence of numerous e-mails and cellphone text messages between Anderson and people who pretended to be terrorists.

Army counterintelligence agent Ricardo Romero met with Anderson at the Barnes &Noble and at the Seattle Center parking garage Feb. 8 and 9.

Romero testified that Anderson showed him a sketch depicting where the Abrams battle tank is vulnerable, and how to “force the crew out so we can kill them – we being al-Qaida.”

Anderson was arrested Feb.12, three days after his second meeting with Romero. His unit was preparing for yearlong deployment to Iraq.

Anderson was a trained tank driver with the Washington National Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade, which is now in Iraq. He was raised in south Everett and is a 1995 graduate of Cascade High School.

A fellow soldier testified that he encountered Anderson at Fort Knox, Ky., during basic training in January 2003. One statement of Anderson caused him concern.

National Guardsman Pfc. Scott Specht, a New York City firefighter, testified that Anderson told him he joined the National Guard to get the skills and training necessary “to go to the motherland and help liberate my Muslim brothers.”

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

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