Former Sailor Arrested For Selling Secrets To Al-Qaeda
Ed Morrissey
A former Navy sailor and recent convert to Islam has been arrested for espionage, ABC News is reporting tonight. Paul Hall, now known as Hassan Abujihaad, sent information about Navy warships in the months following the attack on the USS Cole -- an attack that killed 17 of his former fellow sailors:
A former U.S. Navy sailor has been charged with allegedly passing military secrets about U.S. Navy movements through waters in the Middle East to al Qaeda-related Web sites during the spring of 2001, just months after the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen.
Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, allegedly passed information about U.S. Navy warship movements in the Straits of Hormuz in April 2001 while he was a member of the Navy. The information passed along contained details about vulnerabilites of U.S. vessels -- including susceptibility to small boat attacks by terrorists. ...
Abujihaad worked with others in a network of AQ spies, the indictment alleges. He came to the attention of counterterrorism investigators during a probe of Babar Ahmad, who creates AQ propaganda for its websites. The British have had Ahmad since 2004, and he's fighting extradition to the US. His extradition has been approved, pending a last appeal at the Law Lords. ...
