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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Front
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July 12, 2004, 12:49AM

Mother of 3 hunts terrorists at night
Montana judge, 6 others use Web to snare suspects
By EVAN MOORE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

CONRAD, MONT. - By day, she's the municipal judge of this tiny town, a
wife and mother of three, but by moonlight Shannen Rossmiller is a spy.

Then, Rossmiller - petite, blond and 34 - assumes one of several
unlikely false identities, all angry, violent, Muslim men, nurturing
hatred of the United States. In that guise, she combs the Internet
through the late evening and early morning and sifts through the
messages and declarations on extremist Islamic Web sites.

During those hours, Rossmiller is on a quest that consumes hours of each
day, days of each week. It's one that will place her on the stand
Thursday as the government's primary witness against a National
Guardsman accused of offering information to help Muslim extremists kill
U.S. troops.

It's a quest that has already placed her in danger.

Rossmiller works with an exclusive group, a coalition of seven
civilians, international "cyber spies" who chase terrorists on the
Internet.

They call themselves the "7-Seas."

Until recently they were a largely unknown, almost clandestine bunch.
Named for its global scope, the group consists of Rossmiller; a nuclear
physicist/software designer in Canada; a corporate security consultant
in Houston; a former private detective in Singapore; an Australian; and
two other Americans.

They might have remained unknown. That is, if some of Rossmiller's
efforts hadn't paid off, if she hadn't run across Ryan Anderson, a
National Guardsman accused of attempting to defect to al-Qaida and
offering information on troop strength and vulnerable points on a
Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Rossmiller never planned to be a witness. But then, she'd never planned
to become a spy. She had grown up, married and pursued her career in the
little town of 2,750.

Broke pelvis on 9/11
It's a quiet community, in the northwestern quadrant of Montana in the
shadow of Glacier National Park, home to wheat farmers, ranchers and a
group of Hutterites, a traditional Christian sect related to the Amish.

There, Rossmiller was perfectly happy as municipal judge and might have
remained so if she hadn't broken her pelvis.

"It happened on the evening of 9/11," said Rossmiller. "We'd put in a
new shower, I was just stepping into it and there I went. I was
incapacitated for the next six weeks and all I heard was the news.

"I couldn't avoid it, and I couldn't help but feel that I had to do
something."

Her first thought was to join the National Guard, a plan her husband,
emphatically opposed. Rossmiller, however, describes herself as
passionate in all her pursuits, and it wasn't long before she found a
new avenue.

"I began fishing around on the Internet and I found these groups," she
said.

The "groups" included both the violent fringe of Islamic extremists and
those who tracked them. Soon, Rossmiller was conversing with Brent
Astley, the Canadian member, and others in the 7-Seas, and found herself
drawn into their efforts.

"We're not a bunch of alarmists, and we're not politically motivated,"
said Dave, the Houston member who agreed to speak if not identified.
"We're probably the only group of our kind. Most of us have never met
the others in person, but we're all joined by the desire to stop
terrorism in any form.

"I guess we're like a parody of a spy novel, but we're real."

Rossmiller's role, however, was circumventing reality. Once she joined
7-Seas, she began creating various personae of violent, Islamic men.

"I'd never be taken seriously at those Web sites as a woman," she said.

Paying attention to detail
The ruse requires careful preparation. Rossmiller, with her husband's
help, creates false "proxies" to indicate her e-mails originated from
the Middle East. She uses a commercial translation tool to decipher
messages and to change her text to Arabic. She studies the Koran and
searches out actual addresses and names of Mosques and clerics to refer
to. She keeps a world clock and makes sure she never sends a message
during the hours she would be praying.

An early riser, she makes most of her communications between the hours
of 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., when it is afternoon in the Middle East.

Her efforts soon paid off. Within a few months of searching, she began
communicating with a person who claimed to be an arms dealer. She calls
him "Rocket Man."

"This character said he had missiles and missile parts for sale," said
Rossmiller. "I went about it pretty slowly, said I didn't believe him.

"I really didn't believe it when he sent me a picture of himself and his
address."

Rossmiller turned the dealer in to the FBI. She's never learned what was
done with the information.

Then, last October, she came across a man who called himself "Amir Abdul
Rashid, a brother fighting on the wrong side." In reality, "Rashid"
allegedly was Anderson, a 26-year-old tank driver with the 81st Armor
Brigade at Fort Lewis.

Rossmiller will not discuss her upcoming testimony in Anderson's
court-martial. Her testimony in the May hearing, however, made it clear
that she had extensive communication with the guardsman.

"This is like a second job for all of us," she said. "I probably devote
as much time to it as I do to being a judge."

After exchanging 27 e-mails with "Rashid," Rossmiller called the FBI.
Undercover agents then met with Anderson in a secretly videotaped
session, during which he designated vulnerable points on a tank and
offered other information.

Rossmiller netted an arrest.

"Shannen's the only member of the group who makes contact with
terrorists," said Astley, the longest tenured of the 7-Seas.

"I guess we could be likened to a militia and have been. For the most
part we visit terrorist Web sites. We analyze the data and we try to
inform the appropriate authorities.

"But the word 'militia' has some unpleasant connotations. We believe in
what we're doing and we try to bring terrorists to justice, but we're
not vigilantes. ... "

Often, said Astley, the group has no idea what is done with the warnings
they pass on to authorities.

Her identity aired in court
The organization also has been obscure. Few among government agencies
will acknowledge their existence, and few among the intelligence
community are aware of them.

Within the latter group however, 7-Seas has drawn some small praise.

"We applaud their efforts, what little we know of them," said Elizabeth
Bancroft, executive director of the Association of Former Intelligence
Officers in Washington, D.C.

That service has a price, however. When Rossmiller was called to testify
in Anderson's preliminary hearing in May, her identity and her
membership in 7-Seas were revealed. Days after she appeared in court,
phone threats were called in to Rossmiller's office in Conrad, and she
has been under police protection since.

The experience was sobering for Rossmiller and other members of her
group.

"I think about it, but I don't worry about it constantly. One of the
good things about living in a town the size of Conrad is that it would
be pretty difficult for a stranger to be here for any length of time and
not be noticed."

evan.moore@chron.com