Audio By Carbonatix
A former sailor and Phoenix UPS driver was sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison today for passing secrets to a Pakistan man who ran an Al-Qaeda recruitment Web site.
Paul R. Hall, who has apparently changed his name to Hassan Abu-Jihaad, was arrested in Phoenix in 2007 and charged with terrorism- and espionage-related crimes. Hall/Abu-Jihaad was convicted a year ago, but in early March a judge dropped the terrorism charge, delaying his sentencing.
Hall was a bona fide rat in the grain house — the kind of spy Americans can only hope rank in small numbers. While serving on the U.S.S. Benfold in 2000, the former sailor e-mailed detailed instructions on how jihadists could launch an attack similar to the one of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen. At the other end of the e-mails was Ahmad Babar, a Pakistani man who moved to London in the 1960s and has a master’s degree in engineering. Babar, who ran Web sites for an Al-Qaeda propaganda group, was supposedly in on the scheme to use the the details for an actual attack. He’s fighting extradition to the United States.
A counterintelligence Web site has an easy-to-digest page with more details. Scroll down for the full text of a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix. Below that is an e-mail from Hall posted on the above-linked site.
FORMER MEMBER OF U.S. NAVY SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR DISCLOSING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
Nora
R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of
Connecticut, and other federal officials announced that Hassan
Abu-Jihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, 33, of Phoenix, Arizona,
was sentenced today by United States District Judge Mark R. Kravitz in
New Haven to 120 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of
supervised release, for disclosing previously classified information
relating to the national defense.
“This defendant provided
classified information to others with the understanding that it could
be used to endanger the lives of hundreds of members of the United
States Navy, and we are pleased that the court imposed the maximum
prison term allowed under the law,” Acting U.S. Attorney Dannehy
stated. “I want to acknowledge the efforts of all the agents, analysts
and prosecutors involved in this matter who have worked diligently over
the course of several years to bring this defendant to justice.”
According to the evidence provided at trial, in 2001, four or five months after the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole,
Abu-Jihaad provided classified information regarding the movements of a
United States Navy battle group, which was charged with enforcing
sanctions against the Taliban and engaging in missions against Al
Qaeda, to Azzam Publications,
a London-based organization that is alleged to have provided material
support and resources to persons engaged in acts of terrorism through
the creation and use of various internet web sites, e-mail
communications, and other means, including www.azzam.com. Between approximately February 2000 and the end of 2001, the web site www.azzam.com
was hosted on the computer web servers of a web hosting company located
in Trumbull, Connecticut. At the time the classified information was
disclosed to Azzam Publications, Abu-Jihaad was an enlistee in the United States Navy on active duty in the Middle East and was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Benfold, one of the ships in the battle group whose movements were disclosed.
Evidence presented at trial indicated that, in December 2003, British
law enforcement officers recovered a computer floppy disk in a
residence of one of the operators of Azzam Publications.
Forensic analysis of the disk disclosed a password-protected Microsoft
Word document setting forth previously classified information regarding
the upcoming movements of a U.S. Naval battle group as it was to
transit from San Diego to its deployment in the Persian Gulf in 2001.
The document went on to discuss the battle group’s perceived
vulnerability to terrorist attack.
According to the evidence at
trial, subsequent investigation uncovered several email exchanges from
late 2000 to late 2001 between members of Azzam Publications and Abu-Jihaad, including discussions regarding videos Abu-Jihaad ordered from Azzam Publications that promoted violent jihad and extolled the virtues of martyrdom; a small donation of money Abu-Jihaad made to Azzam Publications; and whether it was “safe” to send materials to Abu-Jihaad at his military address onboard the U.S.S. Benfold. In another email exchange with Azzam Publications,
Abu-Jihaad described a recent force protection briefing given aboard
his ship, voiced enmity toward America, praised Usama bin Laden and the
mujahideen, praised the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole – which Abu-Jihaad described as a “martyrdom operation,” – and advised the members of Azzam Publications that such tactics were working and taking their toll. The email response from Azzam Publications encouraged Abu-Jihaad to “keep up… the psychological warefare [sic].”
The evidence at trial also
indicated that Abu-Jihaad’s contact information – namely, his Navy
email account – was among the few saved in an Azzam Publications online address book.
The evidence at trial included
the testimony of six Navy witnesses indicating, among other things,
that as a Signalman in the Navigation Division of the U.S.S. Benfold
during the 2001 deployment, Abu-Jihaad had access to certain classified
information, including advance knowledge of the battle group’s
movements.
The evidence at trial also
included court-authorized wiretap recordings, during which Abu-Jihaad
used coded conversation to refer to jihad; admonished others not to
speak openly about jihad over the phone or on the Internet because it
was “tapped”; and discussed having conversations with associates using
a shredder and after frisking them for electronic components. The
calls played for the jury also included Abu-Jihaad’s use of the terms
“hot meals” and “cold meals” in reference to his current and former
ability, respectively, to provide inside information or intelligence
about potential U.S. military targets. Abu-Jihaad told an associate
that he “hadn’t been on that job in X amount of years . . . to see . .
. what the fresh meal is,” and in 2006, told another associate that he
had not “been in the field of making meals” for more than four years.
The evidence established that Abu-Jihaad had left the U.S. Navy in 2002.
On March 5, 2008, a federal jury in New Haven found Abu-Jihaad guilty
of one count of providing material support of terrorism, and one count
disclosing previously classified information relating to the national
defense. On March 4, 2009, Judge Kravitz partially granted a defense
motion for a judgment of acquittal on the material support of terrorism
charge. The charge of disclosing previously classified information
relating to the national defense carries a statutory maximum term of
imprisonment of 10 years.
Acting U.S. Attorney Dannehy
commended the substantial efforts and cooperation of the several
federal law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation
including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (“ICE”); the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New
Haven, Phoenix and Chicago; the United States Attorney’s Offices in
Phoenix and Chicago; the Naval Criminal Investigative Service; the
Defense Criminal Investigative Service; and the Internal Revenue
Service’ Electronic Crimes Program. Acting U.S. Attorney Dannehy also
praised the substantial efforts of law enforcement authorities from the
Metropolitan Police Service’s Counter-Terrorism Command within New
Scotland Yard, whose efforts and assistance have been essential in the
investigation of this matter.
This case is being pursued by a
Task Force out of Connecticut consisting of law enforcement officers
from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task
Force, the Internal Revenue Service’s Electronic Crimes Program; the
Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service.
The case is being prosecuted by
a team of federal prosecutors including Assistant United States
Attorneys Stephen Reynolds and William Nardini from the United States
Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, Trial Attorney
Alexis Collins from the Counter-Terrorism Section of the U.S.
Department of Justice’s National Security Division in Washington and
Trial Attorney Rick Green from the Computer Crimes and Intellectual
Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, with
the assistance of Paralegal Specialist David Heath.
Text of Hall/Abu-Jihaad e-mail:
US Navy sailor Paul Hall/Hassan Abujihaad email to Azzam Publications six months after the October 2000 USS Cole attack:
“Brothers/Sisters of Al-Islam: I am a Muslim stationed onboard a US warship currently operating deployed to the Arabian Gulf.
It shall be noted before Usama’s latest video was viewed by massive people all over the world. That psychological anxiety had already set in on America’s forces everywhere. All this is due to the martyrdom operation against the USS Cole. Since then every warship station either on the Western or Eastern shores of America who come to operate in the 5th Fleet op area has to be given a force protect brief. Well during the brief, I attended there was one thing stuck out like thorns on a rose bush. I do not know who was the originator of this either top brass or an American politician. Well here is his/her statement: “America has Never faced an enemy with no borders, no government, no diplomats, nor a standing army that pledges allegiance to no state.”
Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! I give takbirs because I know deep down in my heart that the American enemies that this person has discribe [sic] is the Mujahideen Feesabilillah. These brave men are the true champions and soldiers of Allah in this dunya. I understand fully that they are the men who have brought honor to this weak ummah in the lands of jihad Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, etc. Alhamdulillah! With their only mission in life to make Allah’s name and laws supreme over this world.
I want to let it be known that I have been in the Middle East for almost a total of 3 months. For these 3 months you can truly see the effects of this psychological warfare taking a toll on junior and high ranking officers. But after the latest video supporting Palestine, the top brass and American officials were running around like headless chickens very afraid, wondering if there is a possible threat. But this time the American population got wind of this and they came to know just how afraid the US government is. Thomas J. Friedman wrote an article in the New York Times called: “What it takes to make the Americans turn tail, run” This article was distributed on my ship and most of the sailors said it was so true about the American government, and they feel like they are working for a bunch of scary pussies.
[signed] A Brother serving a Kuffar nation, Astaghfir’Allah….Hassan
