Former Sailor Arrested For Selling Secrets To Al-Qaeda
A former Navy sailor and recent convert to Islam has been arrested for espionage, ABC News is reporting tonight. Paul Hall, now known as Hassan Abujihaad, sent information about Navy warships in the months following the attack on the USS Cole -- an attack that killed 17 of his former fellow sailors:
A former U.S. Navy sailor has been charged with allegedly passing military secrets about U.S. Navy movements through waters in the Middle East to al Qaeda-related Web sites during the spring of 2001, just months after the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen.Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, allegedly passed information about U.S. Navy warship movements in the Straits of Hormuz in April 2001 while he was a member of the Navy. The information passed along contained details about vulnerabilites of U.S. vessels -- including susceptibility to small boat attacks by terrorists.
Abujihaad was arrested today in Phoenix, according to a criminal complaint unsealed tonight that charged him with providing material support to terrorists who planned to kill U.S. nationals.
The complaint claims Abujihaad was an associate of Derrick Shareef, who allegedly tried to explode grenades at the CherryVale Mall outside Chicago during the height of the holiday shopping season last December. Shareef was arrested on Dec. 6, 2006, when he traded stereo speakers for dud grenades in an FBI sting operation.
Abujihaad worked with others in a network of AQ spies, the indictment alleges. He came to the attention of counterterrorism investigators during a probe of Babar Ahmad, who creates AQ propaganda for its websites. The British have had Ahmad since 2004, and he's fighting extradition to the US. His extradition has been approved, pending a last appeal at the Law Lords.
Ahmad ran a website for Azzam Publications, which posted material from another indicted terror suspect, Sayed Talha Ahsan. Ahsan posted information on US Navy ship movements, and the US now says Abujihaad supplied that information to Ahsan. The US Attorney's office in Connecticut will handle the prosecution, since the websites in question had been hosted in that state.
If memory serves, this is the first indictment of a former American serviceman for espionage in service of AQ. If convicted, he could get the death penalty -- and if he's guilty of selling out his former Navy brethren, he deserves it. I normally oppose the death penalty in domestic criminal cases, but espionage and treason in time of war is a clear exception for me.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on March 7, 2007 8:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)
