Posted on 09/03/2004 8:37:56 PM PDT by neverdem
SEATTLE, Sept. 3 - A National Guardsman was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for trying to aid Al Qaeda. The soldier, Specialist Ryan G. Anderson, had been caught in a sting operation offering information on military vulnerabilities to investigators posing as members of the Qaeda terrorist group.
Lawyers for Specialist Anderson argued that he suffered from mental disorders, including bipolar disorder and Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism marked by eccentric behavior, as well as from a tendency to create alternate personas in order to make himself feel important, said Jeff Young, spokesman for the Fort Lewis Army base south of here.
The defense lawyers also argued that the information Specialist Anderson had offered federal investigators in the sting was easily available and not classified.
But after a court martial at Fort Lewis, a panel of nine commissioned officers found on Thursday that the soldier, a convert to Islam who sometimes used the name Amir Abdul Rashid, was guilty of five counts of attempting to give military intelligence to Al Qaeda.
After about four hours' deliberation they delivered his life sentence early Friday morning, adding the possibility of parole but also giving him a dishonorable discharge and demoting him to the rank of private.
Mr. Young could not say when Specialist Anderson, 27, might be eligible for parole.
An organization that monitors extremist groups notified the authorities after Specialist Anderson began posting, with his Muslim name, to a Web site that caters to Muslim militants.
The sting was conducted in late January and early February of this year. Specialist Anderson was charged on Feb. 12. The agents posing as terrorists had recorded him providing details on vulnerabilities of tanks and advice on how to kill American soldiers.
During the proceedings Specialist Anderson said the pressures of a looming deployment to Iraq had contributed to his behavior, and he apologized before the sentencing. His unit, the 81st Armored Brigade, is now in Iraq, Mr. Young said.
He deserved worse.
He should have been tossed to the lions.
Doesn't this count as treason?
Why aren't they hanging him?
I thought National Guard service did NOT make one a person who served in the military?
Oh, wait, that's just the Kerry view of reality...
Too quick and humane.
Somehow I think prision justice will take care of the idiot
I can hear Seattle wailing here in Spokane.
As a shrink who's done a bit of forensic work in my day, I can't believe they tried the old lame NGRO defense, and a shotgun approach to it at that. I'd love to see the evidence they presented to substantiate that he had ALL those diagnoses! What a hoot! Glad to see the court shot it down, and glad to see the verdict came down so swiftly. I assume this reasonable example of justice was a military trial, wasn't it? Well maybe the poor lad can get some protracted treatment for his disorders in prison now, can't he.
Mr. Young could not say when Specialist Anderson, 27, might be eligible for parole.
Two months AFTER frost warnings in hell.
He deserves much worse, you're right. Didn't they used to shoot people for treason in the old days? I think he should be hung by his *** from a tree.
I dunno, with the spread of islam in the prison system they make him a leader!
Stay Strong,
Fuzzy122
Why is he still alive??
This is insanity!
He ought to be swinging from a rope!
Hmmm... Based on this definition, John F'n Kerry may have Asperger's syndrome.
"Too quick and humane."
Not so when using a short wire.
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