US soldier 'tried to offer al-Qaida information on internet'

AN American soldier about to leave for Iraq tried to contact al-Qaida terrorists through the internet, offering the group information on US military capabilities and weaponry, defence officials said yesterday.

National Guard Spc Ryan Anderson, 26, was arrested yesterday and is being held at Fort Lewis "pending criminal charges of aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network".

Anderson was taken into custody as part of a joint investigation by the Army, Department of Justice and the FBI. Defence officials said Anderson signed on to extremist chat rooms and tried to get in touch with al-Qaida operatives.

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

He became a Muslim during the last five years, officials said.

Jack Roberts, a neighbour, said he talked to Anderson's wife, Erin, after federal agents left the couple's apartment on Thursday.

"She was pretty damned shocked, as I was," Roberts said.

Anderson is a tank crew member from the National Guard's 81st Armoured Brigade, a 4,200-member unit set to depart for Iraq. It is the biggest deployment for the Washington Army National Guard since the Second World War.

Washington State University spokeswoman Charleen Taylor said Anderson was a 2002 graduate with a degree in history. Anderson graduated from high school in Everett in 1995 and studied military history with an emphasis on the Middle East at Washington State.

Anderson was arrested in 1998 for carrying a couple of rifles past an elementary school near his home, the newspaper reported, but he was released quickly after authorities determined he had not broken any laws.

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

Captain James Yee, 35, a former Fort Lewis chaplain, is accused of mishandling classified information from the US 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.