Local soldier accused of trying to give al-Qaida info

By Rebecca Cook
The Associated Press

	Ryan G. Anderson in 1995
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Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, was arrested Thursday at this Army base south of Tacoma, just days before he was to leave for duty in Iraq. He was being held at the Fort Lewis Regional Corrections Facility "pending criminal charges of aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network," Army Lt. Col. Stephen Barger said.

Anderson, from Lynnwood, north of Seattle, became a Muslim during the last five years, defense officials said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said Anderson signed on to extremist chat rooms on the Internet and tried to get in touch with al-Qaida operatives.

He offered the organization information on U.S. military capabilities and weaponry, the officials said.

It is unclear how the U.S. government got wind of his offer, but authorities began monitoring his communications, the officials said. It doesn't appear he transmitted any information to al-Qaida, the officials said.

Barger said Anderson was taken into custody without incident as part of a joint investigation by the Army, Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Jack Roberts, a neighbor, said he talked to Anderson's wife, Erin, after federal agents left the couple's Lynnwood apartment on Thursday.

"She was pretty damned shocked, as I was," Roberts told The Herald of Everett.

Today, Anderson's father, Bruce Anderson of Everett, faxed a statement from the family, saying they are "stunned" by the arrest but will trust the code of military justice "to provide Ryan a fair trial before rendering any decision."

Anderson is a tank crew member from the National Guard's 81st Armor Brigade, a 4,200-member unit set to depart for Iraq. It's the biggest deployment for the Washington Army National Guard since World War II.
 
Washington State University spokeswoman Charleen Taylor said Anderson was a 2002 graduate with a degree in history.

Anderson graduated from Everett's Cascade High School in 1995, the Herald reported, and at WSU studied military history with an emphasis on the Middle East.

At age 20 Anderson was taken to the ground by Snohomish County sheriff's deputies as he carried a couple of rifles past a grade school near his home, the newspaper reported. He was released quickly after authorities determined he had not broken any laws.

That incident occurred at a time of high jitters around schools, a day after 15-year-old Kip Kinkel shot two students to death and wounded 23 at his high school in Springfield, Ore., and two days after Kinkel killed his parents.

The brigade has been training at Fort Lewis since November. Eighty percent of the soldiers — 3,200 — are from Washington state, and 1,000 are from guard units in California and Minnesota.

It includes two tank battalions, a mechanized infantry battalion, engineers, support troops, artillery and an intelligence company.

It's due to return in March 2005, and be back under state authority by May 15, 2005.

Anderson is the second Muslim soldier with Fort Lewis connections to be accused of wrongdoing related to the war on terror.

Capt. James Yee, 35, a former Fort Lewis chaplain, is accused of mishandling classified information from the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Yee ministered to Muslim prisoners there.

A preliminary hearing for Yee at Fort Benning, Ga., has been postponed a fourth time, until Feb. 18, the Army said earlier this month.

The Army said the delay was necessary to complete a classification review of documents.

There were initial reports that Yee was being investigated as part of an espionage probe, but he was never charged with spying.

An Army spokesman said Thursday the military is committed to recruiting Muslims, noting many have skills in foreign languages and cultural knowledge that is useful in U.S. military operations overseas.

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