Guardsman Anderson accused of "betrayal" as court martial begins

By Ray Rivera
Seattle Times staff reporter

Ryan G. Anderson faces court-martial proceedings.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Related stories Court-martial procedures

It was those traits — symptoms of a diagnosed mental condition — that led the Washington National Guardsman deeper and deeper into a sting set by government agents, Maj. Joseph Morse said.

Spc. Anderson, a 27-year-old Muslim convert from Lynnwood, is charged with five counts of trying to give aid and intelligence to people he believed to be members of the al-Qaida terrorist network. If convicted, he could spend life in prison without the possibility of release.

"This is a case about betrayal," Maj. Melvin Jenks, the lead prosecutor, said in opening statements yesterday. "Betrayal of our country, betrayal of our Army, and betrayal of his fellow soldiers."

Jenks said that in meetings with undercover agents, Anderson gave specifics on how to destroy new Army Stryker vehicles, M-1 tanks and Humvees, including "the exact caliber of round needed to penetrate the windshield and kill the driver of an up-armored Humvee."

But Morse painted a more harmless portrait of a person who frequently had lied about his past and indulged in role playing. Anderson had "no criminal intent," the lawyer said — writing the words on a large tablet for emphasis — when he shared information with undercover agents he thought were al-Qaida members.

Morse pointed to a litany of fibs Morse had told his fellow soldiers and acquaintances: that his mother was Jordanian; that he was born in Afghanistan; that he had been a mercenary in South Africa, where his girlfriend was killed in an explosion.

None of it was true and it was symptomatic of a mental disorder, Morse said. He did not identify the disorder but planned to call psychiatric experts later in the trial, which is expected to last five days.

"He likes to talk; he likes to pretend he knows more about things than he does," Morse said. That talk included boasts about contacts in Iraq and his knowledge of Islam, weapons and military tactics.

In fact, Anderson was neither a very good Muslim nor soldier, his lawyer said.

In his dress green uniform and short-cropped hair, Anderson sat quietly throughout the proceeding, occasionally taking notes. His wife, Erin, sat behind him in the small, crowded courtroom.
 
Anderson is being tried by a military judge and a jury made up of nine commissioned officers. Unlike a civilian court, where a unanimous decision is required to convict, a court-martial requires agreement by only two-thirds of the panel.

Anderson, who converted to Islam while a student at Washington State University, was a tank crewman with the 81st Armored Brigade. He was arrested Feb. 12 in a government sting operation at Fort Lewis, where his unit was in training for a yearlong deployment to Iraq.

Prosecutors opened their case with testimony from a soldier who attended basic training with Anderson at Fort Knox, Ky., in January 2003.

Pfc. Scott Specht testified that Anderson once told him that he joined the Army so he could take those skills "to the motherland and help liberate the Muslim brothers."

Specht said he was "startled" by the statement and kept his distance. After more such statements, Specht said, he and other recruits reported Anderson to their drill sergeant. He said he didn't know whether anything was ever done.

Anderson first came to the attention of investigators through a city judge in Montana who spent her off-hours hunting for terrorists on the Internet.

Shannen Rossmiller, repeating testimony she had given at a preliminary hearing in May, told prosecutors that she had been monitoring a Web site that catered to Muslim extremists when she came across a posting by an "Amid Abdul Rashid."

Through Internet searches, she traced the name to Anderson and, posing as a Muslim extremist, sent him a note with the header "A Call to Jihad." Anderson wrote back, saying he "was curious if a brother fighting for the wrong side could defect," Rossmiller testified.

Rossmiller said she contacted the FBI after learning Anderson was a member of the military.

Army intelligence agents Burt Whitlow and Ricardo Romero testified that they organized a sting operation and in January began text-messaging Anderson. They organized a face-to-face meeting at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Lakewood, Pierce County, on Feb. 8.

The meeting, between Anderson and Romero, who posed as an al-Qaida operative, lasted just minutes, but Anderson handed over a diskette with his passport photo and an unclassified, blank hazardous-material form.

Anderson agreed to meet the next day in a covered parking garage at Seattle Center. In the hourlong session, which was secretly videotaped, Anderson spoke of the possibility of defecting to join the terrorist group. He also offered to help train al-Qaida fighters to destroy U.S. convoys in Iraq and shared ways of destroying U.S. tanks and killing their crews.

"Later in the meeting, we asked him who he thought we were. He said, 'al-Qaida,' " Romero testified.

Anderson was arrested three days later, just weeks before his unit was to deploy to Iraq.

On cross-examination, Morse got intelligence officer Whitlow to say twice that Anderson never posed a danger to the public or to troops, and that he lacked a security clearance and access to classified information.

Testimony continues today.

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 Persian Gulf War.

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, Balad and Mosul.

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