Posted on 02/13/2004 11:03:16 PM PST by kattracks
EVERETT, Wash. — A National Guardsman suspected of trying to share military information with al-Qaida is a Muslim convert who complained bitterly in a letter to a newspaper about “bigotry, hatred and mindless rage” in the United States.Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, was arrested Thursday and was being held at Fort Lewis. The tank crew member from the Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade was taken into custody just days before he was to leave for duty in Iraq.
Long before his arrest, he had made some of his beliefs known in strongly worded letters to the editor.
“In my three years as an observant Muslim, I’ve encountered nothing but kindness, patience, courtesy and understanding from them,” he wrote in a November 2002 letter to the Herald of Everett. “On the other hand, I have experienced bigotry, hatred and mindless rage from so-called ‘educated thinkers’ here in the U.S.”
Anderson also suggested that his allegiance to the United States was conditional.
In a 1998 letter published by The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, he warned: “Today I am a young soldier, sworn to protect and defend this country. But if tomorrow I find that this nation is no longer the one based upon the freedom I was taught to love, I’ll have little choice but to go where I can live in freedom.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, defense officials said Anderson signed on to extremist Internet chat rooms and tried to get in touch with al-Qaida operatives. It is unclear how the U.S. government got wind of his alleged offer to supply military information to the terrorists. It does not appear he transmitted any information to al-Qaida, authorities said.
Anderson grew up in this city 30 miles north of Seattle, graduating from Cascade High School in 1995. He then attended Washington State University, where he earned a degree in history in 2002. He began studying Islam in 1999, according to his most recent letter to the Herald in 2002.
TV satellite trucks lined the street outside his parents’ home yesterday, but no one made an appearance. His father, Bruce Anderson, issued a statement saying the family was stunned by the arrest but is confident the code of military justice will afford the younger Anderson a fair trial.
It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Didn't you watch Bill Murray in Stripes ??
Only in America would your sons have the real freedom to choose a religion that is not mainstream.
You say they went to Hajj - in Saudi Arabia, Mecca in particular, a Christian would be killed for practicing his religion.
Do your sons not understand the broad context of the meaning of Freedom.
They choose to live in a country that gives them the Freedom to believe spiritually as they choose, yet they are anti-American -- their actions are a direct contradiction to the very freedom they practice and enjoy.
I am at a loss to understand why Muslims in this country also are anti-American ??
Instead they ought to be waving the flag, proudly.
But, in your post - you didn't say Islamist the first time. You said, "They were watching the extremist bulletin boards...".
I bet the government thinks Free Republic is an "extremist site."
I bet Jim Robinson has been required to identify users of this site to the government.
Under the Patriot Act, it would be a felony for Jim to warn us that the government is asking him to identify us.
But, yes, they seemed to side with the idea that American oppresses everybody.
I gave up trying to change their minds because it interferred with the business. At least they afforded me the same courtesy.
To me, that's a bizarre contradiction.
And, they hate us because WE are morally decadent ??
That's really strange if that's what freedom means to this guy Anderson.
I know its a sensitive issue for you, and I'm not trying to beat you up about it -- but, that's the part I simply do not understand.
Just using religious freedom as the single issue and contrasting just two countries, (the U.S. and Saudi Arabia) Muslims procalim, by comparison - the U.S. is the oppressor.
By any measure, that reasoning is upside down and backwards.
Yes, there is oppression in the U.S., but is is not "official government policy." And, I know of no country that works harder than the U.S., as a government, in it's private institutions and as a culture to root out and destroy all forms of oppression.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, locks down it's borders and officially prohibits any other culture from entering there.
And yet, Muslims are almost universally anti-American on the grounds we're the oppressors.
I am confused.
"The only chains worn by blacks in America today are the one's they forge in their own minds." -- Walter Williams
Not the sharpest tool in the toolbox, this guy.
Of course muslims will be kind, patient, courteous and understanding when you join their murder cult.
Try expressing you Christian religious views among them, Einstein, or try going into a Christian church in Saudi Arabia, or Iran, or Syria and report back to us.
And where might that be? Any of the country-members of the Arab League?
At first I misunderstood these sentences. But I realized that what you meant is that after having lived in Europe, it just confirmed your good luck to be an American. It is amazing how many visit other countries as tourists, whether for a week or a year, supported by daddy, and on that basis crow about the superiority of European countries.
They are nice places to visit, and experiencing the history and beauty of the place can be breathtaking, but...
D'OH!
and yet so many from this area are benefactors of US tax dollars due to the extensive facilities in the area operated by boeing. Odd that many of those who directly benefit from the defense industry would be so anti american.
Slainte,
CC
That's a very "telling" comment. It doesn't give much hope for the loyalty to America of the millions of Muslims who now live in this country.
For a world traveler, you seem to have a few soft spots on your head. If this is the controlling characteristic that you choose to see in the Taliban, I'm not sure why anyone would want to share a dialog with you.
Gheeeez!
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