Friday, July 29, 2011

Ft. Hood Plot Foiled

The FBI says bomb-making materials were found in the motel room of an AWOL Fort Campbell, Ky., soldier arrested near Fort Hood Wednesday.

Agency spokesman Erik Vasys said Thursday that firearms and "items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder" were removed from 21-year-old Pfc. Nasser Abdo's Killeen motel room.
This is a full out case of WTF though... 21 year old PFC joined just a few years ago (well after OEF/OIF started,) AKO says he's an 11 series MOS (Infantry,) yet he claims to have had "Muslim religious beliefs [that] would prevent him from fighting in any war" since he was 17.  Apparently he made news earlier in the year when he claimed conscientious objector status to avoid a deployment to Afghanistan.

Thankfully the guy was lacking in general social skills, and did more than enough to tip off some people... like the gun working at the gun shop.
"Initially, what kind of drew our attention to him as a patron was he showed up in a taxicab," Greg Ebert said. "That's kind of out of the norm."

Ebert grew more suspicious as the man made his way around the store. He bought three boxes of shotgun shells, a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol and 6 pounds of smokeless gun powder, paying about $250.

"What raised the first real red flag was when he stands here and asks the manager, 'What is smokeless powder?'” Ebert said. "Well, if you don't know what it is, why would you buy six pounds of it?"
Thankfully the shop called the local PD, so they actually arrested him rather than "continued to build a case."  Seems the Army would like to talk to him about some Child Porn charges on top of the AWOL status...

2 comments:

Fred said...

From "The Eight I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts" -

"2. I'd Really Rather You Didn't Use My Existence To Oppress, Subjugate, Punish, Evicerate, And/Or, You Know, Be Mean To Others. I Don't Require Sacrifices And Purity Is For Drinking Water, Not People."

I believe it would also go against His advice in numbers 3 and 8. Ramen.

But like I said, it still strikes me as odd that somebody with those beliefs he would still sign up for Combat Arms... unless the attack was the plan all along.

Six said...

We know that gangs have/are sending members to the military to acquire combat skills so it doesn't stretch credulity to assume the rifs are doing much the same. I guess the real problem is finding folks smart enough to learn but still stupid and committed enough to sacrifice themselves. Clearly Abdo fell outside that particular bell curve. He's got the stupid part down pat though.