Guardsman faces hearing today

By Ray Rivera
Seattle Times staff reporter

Ryan Anderson is accused of attempting to aid the enemy.

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Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, a 26-year-old from Lynnwood, was arrested Feb. 12, just weeks before he was to deploy to Iraq with the Washington National Guard's 81st Armored Brigade.

He is accused of passing on to undercover agents sketches of M1A1 and M1A2 tanks and a computer disk with his passport photo, military identification card and military weapons card.

He also is charged with trying to share intelligence on Army troop strengths, movements, equipment and tactics, as well as "methods and means of killing U.S. Army personnel and destroying U.S. Army weapons systems and equipment."

The most serious charge, attempting to aid the enemy, carries a maximum penalty of death, although capital punishment is rare in the military and unlikely to be sought in this case, say military and legal experts.

Federal sources have said that at no time were troops or national security at risk.

The last person convicted of aiding the enemy was Army Spc. Albert Sombolay, who served 12 years of a 34-year sentence for selling military information to foreign agents as the U.S. prepared for the first Gulf War.

Today's hearing, known as an Article 32 hearing, is expected to last two days and will determine whether there is enough evidence to go to trial, or in military terms, a court-martial. The hearing also will offer a look at the military's legal system, which is sure to come under increasing scrutiny as several U.S. soldiers face the possibility of military trials in the widening prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

More than 70 members of the military have been convicted of espionage since the end of World War II, but aiding-the-enemy cases are rarer. That's because they typically come only during wartime. Espionage charges can be filed even when there is no defined enemy.

"Most of the cases — and there have been very few — came out of the Korean War or the Vietnam War, and virtually all dealt with American prisoners who gave information to their captors," said Scott Silliman, the top Air Force lawyer during the first Gulf War. He now runs the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University in North Carolina.

Anderson, a tank crewman with the 81st, grew up in Everett and graduated from Washington State University. He reportedly converted to Islam in college and joined the National Guard shortly after graduation in 2002.
 
According to military officials, Anderson attempted to contact al-Qaida through an Internet chat room that catered to Muslim extremists. In a sting operation involving the Army, the FBI and the Department of Justice, he ended up communicating with undercover operatives, the officials said.

The alleged conduct occurred on different occasions in January and February while he was stationed at Fort Lewis; in Yakima, where he was training for a yearlong deployment to Iraq; and in Lynnwood, where he shared a residence with his wife.

Anderson's case bears some similarities to Sombolay's.

Stationed in Germany on the eve of the first Gulf War, Sombolay contacted the Iraqi and Jordanian embassies and offered to sell his services in support of the "Arab cause." After his arrest in March 1991, he admitted passing on information on U.S. troop deployments, military identification cards and other materials, including chemical-protection equipment and samples of U.S. rations.

He pleaded guilty to espionage and aiding the enemy, although later tried to appeal. His lawyers said his crimes didn't amount to espionage because the information he provided was not classified and could be "found in any place." A military appeals court disagreed.

Similarly, the information Anderson is alleged to have shared was not classified, according to sources, and was "common knowledge."

Sombolay's motive was money, according to government lawyers at the time. Military authorities have not publicly speculated on Anderson's motives, but they appear not to be related to money. Instead, sources have said Anderson may have been driven by a desire to be part of a group.

Before converting to Islam, Anderson once described himself in an Internet posting as a "die-hard Christian" who spent months unsuccessfully trying to join a right-wing militia group.

Anderson has been held at a Fort Lewis detention facility since his arrest. His unit deployed to Iraq in March and is serving security missions around Baghdad and Balad.

Ray Rivera: 206-464-2926 or rayrivera@seattletimes.com