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Posted: 8/18/2004 7:32:59 AM EDT

News that a former U.S. Navy sailor is under investigation for sending classified information about a USS Constellation carrier battle group deployment to the Persian Gulf to a Taliban organizer in 2001 has sent shock waves throughout the sea service.



The sailor, whose name has not been publicly revealed, sent the messages in late 2000 and early 2001 to London resident Babar Ahmad, who was detained on a U.S. extradition warrant on Aug. 4, officials revealed last week. Babar is accused of being a recruiter for the Taliban in Afghanistan. He faces charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists; conspiracy to launder money; conspiracy to support the Taliban; and solicitation to commit a crime of physical violence.



The classified information found on Ahmad’s computer included details on the Constellation battle group, its then-impending Persian Gulf deployment, and precise information on how ships in the group were organizing defenses against small boat attacks such as the one that had crippled the destroyer USS Cole in October 2000.



An affidavit from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cited by the San Diego Union-Tribune last week stated that the sailor had praised both the bombing of the Cole in October 2000 as well as the actions of Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. The newspaper revealed, “A return message from Ahmad’s computer account ‘praised the enlistee’s comments’ and encouraged the enlistee ‘to keep up with the dawah (an Arabic term for missionary work) and the psychological warefare (sic).’ ”



The sailor – a convert to Islam – was assigned to the San Diego-based destroyer USS Benfold at the time, and used his shipboard email account to communicate with Ahmad, officials said. He reportedly left the Navy several years ago when his four-year enlistment ran out. Officials said the investigation is continuing.



One of the more challenging conclusions of the 9/11 Commission report concerned the need for the United States and its allies to actually identify the enemy in the ongoing war against terrorism. As panelist John Lehman has noted, calling the conflict by that term confuses the enemy’s tactics with its actual identity (see “Our Enemy Is Not Terrorism,” DefenseWatch, May 20, 2004).



The commission concluded: “The enemy is not just ‘terrorism,’ some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy. The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism – especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology.”



Of course, the usual gang of civil libertarians, blame-America-first leftists and tenured college professors have thrown up their hands in horror over such rank candor. Writing in The Washington Post on July 28, Bard College professor Caleb Carr accused the panel members of trying “to rewrite the terms of the global war on terrorism and turn it into a global war on Islamist terrorism alone.”



Carr went on, “And now, when the Sept. 11 commission says that terrorism is no longer the enemy, that Islamist extremism has assumed that role, most Muslims are going to hear the same sort of threatening, generalized message, one constantly repeated by Osama bin Laden: The Americans are not really concerned with terrorism – in fact, they’ve practiced it throughout their history; what they are embarked on is a war against Islam itself.”



I’ve got news for the good professor and his ilk: al Qaeda’s radical variant of Islam has been at war with us for 12 years (we only started noticing it when our embassies, naval warships and the World Trade Center blew up or fell down).

What is worse, something is motivating a disturbing number of U.S. military personnel – who aspire to or have already converted to the Islamic faith – to attempt to switch sides in this cruel and bitter war. The unidentified Benfold sailor is not alone:



* A Washington state Army National Guardsman, Army Spc. Ryan Anderson, is facing a general court-martial on four counts of trying to communicate with terrorists (he was nabbed in a sting operation when meeting with undercover federal agents posing as al Qaeda recruiters).



* At Fort Bragg, N.C., officials are preparing for a general court-martial in October where they will try Sgt. Hasan Akbar on multiple counts, including two murder charges, for the March 2003 grenade attack that killed two officers in the 101st Airborne Division while the unit prepared for the invasion of Iraq.



* Earlier this summer, the Army convicted a 1st Infantry Division Engineer Brigade soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Abdullah Webster, for disobeying a lawful order from a superior commissioned officer and one count of missing movement. Webster reportedly told his superiors that told his leaders that he would not deploy based on guidance he received from Muslim clerics.



What these four incidents illustrate is that we are not threatened by a group of nihilists who want to crash airliners and set off truck bombs for the hell of it. Al Qaeda has a clear ideology and belief structure that stems from a harsh and extreme variant of the Islamic faith. It is that ideology that succeeds in attracting recruits who wear the uniform of the U.S. military.



In the long run, as the 9/11 Commission has concluded, the United States and its allies will have to wage and prevail against radical Islam in a war of ideas as much as a war of guns and PGMs. That will be a difficult and challenging task.



In the short run, as the record of these incidents warns us, the U.S. military must take concerted steps to mount an effective internal security program aimed at identifying and rooting out the enemy within its own ranks. Balancing security requirements with soldiers’ 1st Amendment freedom of religion rights will be no less daunting.



But both actions are urgently needed.




www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=47&rnd=103.33378713782871
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:39:50 AM EDT
[#1]
After the political fallout and deals, this will be yet another win for CNN's Religion of Peace.
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:41:18 AM EDT
[#2]

Quoted:

The classified information found on Ahmad’s computer included details on the Constellation battle group, its then-impending Persian Gulf deployment, and precise information on how ships in the group were organizing defenses against small boat attacks such as the one that had crippled the destroyer USS Cole in October 2000.





Why does this make me think that the small skiff
that ran into the JFK a couple of weeks ago was a
dry run?

[tinfoil]

Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:46:13 AM EDT
[#3]
Every traitor that is convicted should be immediately executed.  Hell, just shoot them in the court room.
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:49:09 AM EDT
[#4]
treasonist, islamic fricking pig, time for the crusades
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:49:36 AM EDT
[#5]
Tagged......
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:54:37 AM EDT
[#6]
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:55:47 AM EDT
[#7]
Burn Him!
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:56:07 AM EDT
[#8]

The sailor – a convert to Islam – was assigned to the San Diego-based destroyer USS Benfold at the time, and used his shipboard email account to communicate with Ahmad, officials said. He reportedly left the Navy several years ago when his four-year enlistment ran out. Officials said the investigation is continuing.


How come this does not suprize me.


Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:34:50 PM EDT
[#9]
BTT
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 7:41:09 PM EDT
[#10]
NAVY TURNCOAT

By VINCENT MORRIS

August 7, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - A U.S. sailor aboard one of America's high-tech Navy warships sent e-mails to a suspected London-based al Qaeda terrorist and may have revealed sensitive military secrets, authorities announced yesterday.

The traitor sailor, who has not been identified, praised Muslim terror strikes against America and may have turned over detailed plans about the Navy's USS Benfold and more than a dozen other ships in its battle group as they were moving through the Mideast, officials said.

The information about the American sailor was disclosed yesterday by federal prosecutors in Connecticut who said he had been in contact with accused British terrorist Babar Ahmad.

In court papers, prosecutors said the sailor sent a July 2001 e-mail to Ahmad that expressed "enmity towards the 'American enemies' and strong support for" Islamic fighters.

The e-mail also hailed those who attacked the USS Cole and "the men who have brought honor this week to the [religious leaders] in lands of Jihad: Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, etc."

Prosecutors said, "The response sent from the [Ahmad's] e-mail account praised the [Navy] enlistee's comments."

The sailor told Ahmad about how the men on his ship reacted to a briefing they were given on how to prevent terror attacks similar to the deadly strike against the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen that killed 17 Americans.

Investigators also found information on Ahmad's computers showing the vulnerability of the battleship to an assault by a small craft of men armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said, "You can rest assured the Navy knows who he is and is taking appropriate precautions."

Ahmad, arrested earlier this week, is accused of running two U.S.-based Web sites to recruit and raise money for Taliban fighters and other terrorists.

Prosecutors said he had at least one classified Navy document about the movement and plans of the 8,000-person battle group that the USS Benfold is attached to.

Among the documents was a drawing showing the formation of the various ships in the group as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.

The sailor left the Navy two years ago when his enlistment expired, authorities said.

"We are aware of the investigation. There is currently no tie between the sailor and the information on the battle group," said Lt. Ohene Gyapong, a Pentagon spokesman told The Post yesterday, noting that the Navy's own investigative agency took part.

None of the ships in the battle group was ever attacked.

The USS Benfold is a 505-foot guided-missile destroyer based in San Diego and is named after Edward C. Benfold, a Medal of Honor recipient from Pennsylvania killed during the Korean War while saving two injured Marines.

The $1 billion, high-tech destroyer is armed with Tomahawk missiles.
Link Posted: 8/18/2004 8:03:17 PM EDT
[#11]
We fried the Rosenbergs, nobody had a problem with that.  What has changed.  
Here is an outline for offenses against the United States and its citizens:

Espionage--Trial on Wednesday,  Execution on Friday

Treason--Trail on Wednesday, Execution on Friday

Murder by Terror--Trial on Wednesday, Execution on Friday

Murder by Terror with Conspiracy by a foreign Government----Just push the Fucking Button
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