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Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2265022/posts

Lawyer: Ark. attack suspect ‘radicalized’ [while in prison] in Yemen
Google AP ^ | June 4, 2006 | By JON GAMBRELL
Posted on June 4, 2009 5:01:39 PM PDT by Jim Robinson

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting a soldier outside a recruiting center begged for FBI agents to free him from a Yemeni jail where he was “radicalized” by Islamic terrorists, his lawyer told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Lawyer Jim Hensley described Abdulhakim Muhammad as an impressionable youth driven to public service in an impoverished Middle Eastern country. But teachings by “hardened” terrorists in Yemen and experiences with Afghan child refugees who were missing limbs drove him to become someone his parents didn’t recognize, Hensley said.

“Here comes the FBI, who may be able to help this guy or save his life, and then they leave and then he’s got to go back in with these hardened terrorists. He’s got to survive, how do you live with that?” Hensley said. “He absolutely feels that the FBI and anyone else associated with the United States government left him to the wolves, that’s for certain.”

The FBI referred calls to a spokesman who was not in his office Thursday. Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

~~snip~~

Hensley said Muhammad was a college student in Tennessee and left early to pursue volunteer work teaching English to children in Yemen. The lawless and impoverished country on the tip of the Arabian peninsula — also the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden’s family — was the scene of one of al-Qaida’s most dramatic pre-9/11 attacks, the 2000 suicide bombing of the destroyer USS Cole off the Aden coast that killed 17 American sailors.

While in Yemen, Hensley said Muhammad married and converted to Islam...

(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...

Thanks to DC Bryan 1 for the ping to this thread.

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267926/posts

Family praises slain GI, calling him soldier, hero (Pvt Willam Long, terrorist victim in AR)
ARDEMGAZ (requires subscription) ^ | 09 JUN 09 | BY SAMANTHA FRIEDMAN
Posted on June 9, 2009 6:12:43 AM PDT by DCBryan1

The day before he died, U.S. Army Pvt. William Andrew “Andy” Long floated the Buffalo River with his sister, Vanessa Rice. If he had his way, she said, the pair would have gone skydiving.

“I’m so blessed to have had that day with Andy,” Rice tearfully told guests at her brother’s funeral Monday at Harlan Park Baptist Church in Conway. “My brother meant the world to me. Andy loved to be outdoors, to travel, and he couldn’t wait to get to Korea to serve his country.”

The service was followed by a burial with full military honors Monday at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock.

Long, 23, of Conway, was shot and killed June 1 outside a west Little Rock recruiting office. Fellow Army Private Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, was wounded in the attack.

The church’s sanctuary was filled with Long’s family and friends, fellow armed service members, and government officials, including Gov. Mike Beebe and U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder.

Pastor Johnny Harrington of Long’s church, Sunny Gap Baptist Church in Conway, praised Long’s commitment to the Army and recent appointment to the Army’s Hometown Recruiter Assistance Program in Little Rock. He said Long is a fourth-generation armed services member. Long’s father, Daris Long, is retired from the U.S. Marine Corps.

“No one is more military, no one is more patriotic than this family right here,” Harrington said. “Military runs through their hearts and their blood. No one is more dedicated to it than they, and I know that they couldn’t be prouder of Andy and his desire to serve his country.

“I asked Daris what’s the one word he’d use to describe Andy, and he said two: soldier and hero.”

Wearing a red cap signifying that he is a retired U.S. Marine and an American flag tie, Long’s father shared a letter he had written his son in advance of his scheduled departure for his first duty post in South Korea, which had been set for Monday. He advised his son to always do the right thing, to put aside his personal feelings, to follow the orders of the president and his commanding officers.

“You and your brother ... are both heroes for having the moral courage to stand up when your country needs you most,” Daris Long read. “You are in my hopes and my thoughts and my prayers. You are my son, you are my hero. I love you. Semper fidelis.”

Long’s brother, Pfc. Triston Long of Fort Bliss, Texas, gave Long the cavalry branch insignia badge on behalf of his own unit and in honor of Long’s Army service.

“My brother taught me valuable lessons and made me the man I am today,” Triston Long said. “My commander said, ‘Make your brother one of us.’ I will miss my brother with all that I am, and I serve in honor of him.”

Long also was honored with the Army Commendation Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal.

The Arkansas Blue Star Mothers presented Long’s mother, Janet Long, with the Gold Star Banner, given to mothers of service members killed in the line of duty.

The funeral service ended with a slideshow featuring childhood photos of William Long and his family.

Camp Robinson Chaplain Jeremy Miller led the burial service.

“We’re here to honor this man today for the sacrifice that he was,” he told Long’s family.

Arkansas Army National Guard Honor Guard members served as pallbearers. After the playing of taps, they presented American flags to Long’s mother, brother and sister, and the family placed red roses atop the casket.

Dozens of leather-vested veterans of the Patriot Guard Riders lined up with flags outside the church during the service, then surrounded the family with their motorcycles at the cemetery.

Beebe issued a proclamation Friday directing U.S. and Arkansas flags be flown at half-staff Monday.