Iraq

Guardsman jailed, accused of trying to spy for al-Qaida

FORT LEWIS, Wash. - A National Guardsman scheduled to deploy to Iraq next month was arrested Thursday and accused of trying to provide information to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the Army said.

Defense officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, signed onto extremist Internet chat rooms and tried to get in touch with al-Qaida operatives. The Washington Post, quoting an unnamed Army official, reported that Anderson was offering to provide information about the capabilities and vulnerability of some U.S. weapons systems.

It is unclear how the government got wind of his alleged offer, but authorities began monitoring his communications, the officials said. It does not appear he transmitted any information to al-Qaida, the officials said.

Officials and his hometown newspaper, the Herald of Everett, reported that Anderson became a Muslim during the last five years.

Army Lt. Col. Stephen Barger said Anderson was held "pending criminal charges of aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network."

Barger said Anderson was taken into custody without incident as part of a joint investigation by the Army, Justice Department and FBI. He was held at the Fort Lewis Regional Corrections Facility near Tacoma.

Barger declined to give any details on the arrest, and it was not immediately clear if Anderson had a lawyer. He is a tank crew member from the National Guard's 81st Armor Brigade, a 4,200-member unit set to depart next month for a year in Iraq.

Washington State University spokeswoman Charleen Taylor said Anderson is a 2002 graduate with a degree in history. Anderson graduated from high school in Everett in 1995, the Herald reported, and at WSU studied military history with an emphasis on the Mideast.

Anderson was called to active duty in November along with 4,000 other soldiers from Washington state, California and Minnesota. The brigade has been training at Fort Lewis since November.

It includes two tank battalions, a mechanized infantry battalion, engineers, support troops, artillery and an intelligence company.

The Army now has several weeks for the unit commander and a military lawyer to determine whether there is probable cause for formal charges to be filed against Anderson. If probable cause is found, he will face the equivalent of a grand jury investigation, after which the commander will decide whether to initiate a court-martial.

Anderson is the second Muslim soldier with Fort Lewis connections to be accused of wrongdoing related to the war on terror.

Capt. James Yee, 35, a former Fort Lewis chaplain, is accused of mishandling classified information from the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Yee ministered to Muslim prisoners there.

There were initial reports that Yee was being investigated as part of an espionage probe, but he was never charged with spying.

- Information from the Associated Press, Washington Post, Knight Ridder Newspapers and New York Times was used in this report.

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