American Muslim al-Qaida Spy suspect arraigned in shackles

Since 03-22-07

By Michael P. Mayko, Connecticut Post 22 March 22, 2007

Extracted from Undersea Enterprise News Daily for 22 March 2007

BRIDGEPORT — Armed deputy U.S. marshals will escort a shackled former Navy signalman to his arraignment here Friday on charges that he supplied an al-Qaida support cell with the classified ship movements of a battlegroup heading to the Middle East in 2001.

Hassan Abujihaad, once known as Paul Hall, 31, of Phoenix, is expected to plead not guilty to charges of providing materials in a conspiracy designed to kill Americans, as well as providing classified information to terrorists.

The charges carry a maximum 25-year prison term upon conviction.

A Bridgeport grand jury indicted the former sailor Wednesday.

He will be brought before U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons, who will advise him of his rights, appoint a lawyer to defend him and then take his expected not guilty pleas.

The indictment accuses Abujihaad of e-mailing information to the support cell while stationed aboard the USS Benfold, a Navy destroyer in the spring of 2001. At the time, the ship was part of the battlegroup making its way to the Middle East.

The indictment alleges that Abujihaad informed the cell that the 11-vessel battle group would be sailing through the Straits of Hormuz on April 29, 2001, at night under a communications blackout. He also is accused of advising them that the ships are vulnerable to a small craft attack using missiles. He praised the deadly terrorist attack on the USS Cole in a July 2001 e-mail, the indictment charges.

None of the information provided by Abujihaad resulted in an attack on the 10 ships and one submarine as they made their way toward Pakistan and Afghanistan.

FBI Special Agent David Dillon and Senior Special Agent Craig Bowling of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were part of the team that arrested Abujihaad in Phoenix.

Abujihaad enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served from Dec. 20, 1997, to Jan. 25, 2002. From July 1, 1998, to Jan. 10, 2002, he served aboard the Benfold, which was assigned to the Persian Gulf.

More recently he was working for United Parcel Service in Arizona.

He is the third person indicted for participating in a terrorist cell that rented Internet server space from two Web-hosting services — OLM, LLC in Trumbull and Internet Quality Services in Las Vegas.

Neither company is accused of any wrongdoing.

The cell allegedly used the Internet to solicit donations, recruits and support for terrorist-based activities in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Previously, the grand jury indicted Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan, two English nationals on terrorism-related charges. Both have been ordered extradited to Connecticut. Their trial is expected to take place at the federal courthouse in New Haven.

The indictment alleges the pair and others operated through Azzam Publications.

Azzam used the Web sites to post Osama bin Laden's declaration of war, an exclusive interview with Ayman al-Zawahiri — al-Qaida's second-in command — instructions on how to prepare for jihad training, what a woman could do to help jihad, and how to deal with law enforcement. It also stressed the importance of cash donations and gas masks and chemical-resistant suits.

It was during a December 2003 search of Ahmad's apartment in London that British law enforcement officers recovered a floppy disk containing the battlegroup's movements. The disk identified each of the 11 vessels by name, the number of personnel aboard, the type of weaponry carried as well as the travel route and stops.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Reynolds and William Nardini are prosecuting these cases.