Local soldier accused of trying to give al-Qaida info

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter

	KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Army Lt. Col. Stephen Barger is surrounded by reporters yesterday at a news conference at Fort Lewis, where Ryan G. Anderson of the Washington State National Guard 81st Armor Brigade was under arrest.
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About two years ago, a young man using the screen name "akagunfighter" joined a local Islamic Internet chat room.

His real name was Ryan G. Anderson, and he could hardly have been less welcome.

Anderson was arrested yesterday by U.S. Army officials, who say the 26-year-old National Guardsman attempted to communicate and provide intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorism network.

Anderson, a member of the 81st Armor Brigade about to be deployed to Iraq, has not been formally charged.

"He was introducing himself as a new Muslim and wanted to teach people to shoot rifles and guns, which we don't do," recalled Aziz Junejo, a Seattle Muslim advocate and host of the cable-TV show "Focus on Islam."

It was a tense time two years ago for Muslims in Seattle: The FBI was investigating a group of radical Muslims and a terrorist training camp in Oregon, and nobody wanted the attention. Anderson was quickly sent packing.

	1995 Ryan G. Anderson

"He was very bold and very irresponsible," Junejo recalled.

The Army has released no information about the alleged crimes. Its spokesman, Lt. Col. Stephen Barger, said Anderson was being held "pending criminal charges of aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network." The Uniform Code of Military Justice states that such a crime could be a capital offense.

Several sources familiar with the investigation have said Anderson was arrested following a sting operation and that no information was ever passed to the enemy.

One law-enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Anderson's contact was with an FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida operative.

National security was never breached nor was any information passed on to al-Qaida or anyone connected with the terrorist group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Although it appeared Anderson wanted to join al-Qaida, he came across as a "wannabe" rather than a serious figure, a federal law-enforcement source said. Most of the information Anderson offered the undercover agent was the type "you could learn on the History Channel" or was "common knowledge stuff."

Anderson, another source said, had logged into extremist Islamic chat rooms in recent months.

Anderson did not have any significant security clearance, that source said.

Jack Roberts, who lives next door to Anderson at the Cambridge Square Apartments in Lynnwood, said he spoke with Anderson's wife after the FBI searched their apartment and seized several guns yesterday.

"She said he was accused of passing information and drawings of tanks and Humvees," Roberts said. "She was in total shock.

"He just seemed like a normal military guy who liked guns," Roberts added. "I wouldn't have suspected it of him."

Anderson struck investigators as someone with a "radio voice," which made him sound more authoritative than he actually was.

"He's a kid who really, really wanted to belong to something and kept pressing and pressing," the source said.

Lena Tuffaha, a member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a Muslim, said there's often a visceral reaction when situations such as this arise.

"I think like any other instance, where in our country a person is considered innocent until proven guilty, it's important for us to treat this like we would any other case and wait to hear the facts," Tuffaha said.

Anderson graduated from Everett's Cascade High School in 1995, and his family placed a paid advertisement in the school yearbook bearing the young man's photograph. Below it was a caption that read, "Congratulations Ryan! Graduation 1995 And the Adventure Begins!"

According to the yearbook, Anderson was vice president of the school's Junior Statesmen of America club, in which students debated and discussed politics, government and the law.

He graduated with a degree in history from Washington State University in 2002.

A former Cascade classmate, who declined to give his name, described Anderson as "a middle-of-the-road student, not too flashy, not too bad."

"He never caused any problems. He was liked and didn't have any enemies. Something must've changed between high school and now."

The classmate, a fellow member of Junior Statesmen, noted Anderson and other members of the group were interested in military affairs because of the Gulf War. He said Anderson liked discussing military issues.

Jennifer Seratte, also a Cascade classmate, was dumbfounded by the news.

"I'm just kind of shocked by the whole thing, I thought Ryan would never do such a thing," said the Everett woman. "He's always been pro-American and pro-Christianity. "I was shocked he turned Muslim."

Mandy Dailey was a friend of Anderson's when they were in high school together in Everett, but she said she isn't surprised at the allegations against him. "He was kind of a follower," she said.

Dailey, who graduated with Anderson, now lives in Edmonds. He yearned to be accepted by his peers and tried to "reinvent" himself again and again to fit in with different cliques, she said.

She said he was a Lutheran, and even after his conversion to Islam five years ago, he didn't seem interested in religion or in discussing spiritual things with his friends.

No on answered the door at a home southeast of Everett, where Anderson grew up and where his father, Bruce, still lives. The brown, wood-paneled house sits on a corner. Attached to the two-car garage was a flagpole with a weathered American flag.

Seattle Times staff reporters J. Patrick Coolican, Lynn Thompson, Emily Heffter, Christopher Schwarzen, Diane Brooks and J.J. Jensen contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company