WACO, Texas (AFP) – A soldier suspected of planning an attack on fellow soldiers near a US military base refused to stand up for the judge during a brief court appearance and was escorted shouting from the room.
Army Private Naser Jason Abdo has been charged with possession of an illegal firearm after his Wednesday arrest at a Killeen, Texas motel where police found bombmaking materials and literature in his room, along with a copy of the Al-Qaeda English-language magazine, Inspire.
"Abdeer Qassim al-Janabi, Iraq 2006! Nidal Hasan, Fort Hood 2009!" Abdo shouted as he was escorted out of the Texas courtroom, apparently referring to an Iraqi girl who was raped and killed by US soldiers in Mahmudiyah in 2006, and Major Nidal Hasan who is facing a court martial for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at a Fort Hood deployment facility in November 2009.
Friday's hearing lasted just five minutes. Abdo, who was wearing a white prison jump suit, refused to stand up when the bailiff called "All rise," as Judge Jeffrey Manske entered the courtroom. Eventually four US marshals took him by the arms and made him stand before the judge.
Manske questioned Abdo about his education, and the AWOL soldier said he graduated from high school and had one year of college. When the judge asked if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Abdo responded with a "no."
During an interview with FBI officials, Abdo admitted he planned to build two bombs in his budget hotel room by packing gun powder and shrapnel into pressure cookers he would then detonate at a restaurant popular with soldiers from Fort Hood, a sprawling US Army base in Texas, according to the affidavit.
Items found in his room included a .40 caliber handgun, ammunition, an Inspire article entitled "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom" and bombmaking components -- including six bottles of smokeless gunpowder, shotgun shells, shotgun pellets, two clocks, two spools of auto wire, an electric drill and two pressure cookers, court documents said.
The criminal complaint filed against him was unsealed in Waco, Texas, by Judge Mankse. If convicted, Abdo faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a maximum $250,000 fine.
Attached to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Abdo had sought conscientious objector status to refuse deployment to Afghanistan, saying he could not fight other Muslims.
But after his status was granted in May, Abdo was charged with possession of child pornography on a computer. He then left Fort Campbell without permission early this month.
The Washington Post, citing congressional and federal officials, said Abdo had been inspired by Hasan and his shooting spree at Fort Hood in 2009.
Hasan, who mowed down fellow soldiers before he was set to deploy to Afghanistan, goes on trial March 5 and faces the death penalty if convicted.
Investigators allege that Hasan, like Abdo born in the United States of Palestinian descent, had been in contact with key Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, a US citizen at large in Yemen.
Abdo was arrested following a tip from a clerk at Guns Galore, a store where Hasan had bought weapons used in the deadly attack. Abdo had purchased gunpowder, shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic handgun from the shop.
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