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March 04, 2008
Sailor's Trial Reveals Top Navy Fears
Sailor's Trial Reveals Top Navy Fears
U.S. Navy commanders were wary as their ships headed to the Persian Gulf in the months after a terrorist ambush in 2000 killed 17 sailors aboard the USS Cole.
Passing the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow, busy shipping lane that often invited challenges from Iran, was never easy. Ship commanders decided to travel quickly at night after conducting a drill. Sailors took up machine gun positions and shut valves and hatches to limit damage in case of attack.
"We really weren't sure what to expect," said Lt. Commander Jay Wylie, who was on board the USS Benfold.
No one expected to find a threat from within.
But federal authorities say there was. A Benfold signalman, Hassan Abu-Jihaad, had provided suspected terrorist supporters in London with sensitive details of when U.S. ships would pass through the strait and their vulnerability to attack, prosecutors say.
Testimony last week in Abu-Jihaad's trial has provided a window into the fears of top Navy officials after an explosives-laden boat rammed the Cole as it refueled in a Yemen harbor. It also revealed how heightened vigilance after Sept. 11 triggered an investigation that began in Connecticut and expanded to London before Abu-Jihaad and others were arrested.
Abu-Jihaad, 32, of Phoenix, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging he provided material support to terrorists and disclosed classified national defense information.
Prosecutors rested their case Friday. Abu-Jihaad does not plan to take the stand Monday when his attorneys call one witness before closing arguments.
Abu-Jihaad, an American born Muslim convert, changed his name from Paul Hall in 1997. A year later, he was granted security clearance that gave him access to secrets, according to Navy officials.
Abu-Jihaad was one of the first sailors Petty Officer Josh Kelly met when he boarded the Benfold. Abu-Jihaad was chatty about where the ship was headed, Kelly says.
"We always wonder where we were going," Kelly testified, noting the stress of life at sea.
But advance movements were a closely guarded secret. Dennis Amador, a quartermaster and Abu-Jihaad's supervisor, told his wife where he was in code.
"We in the Navy are taught from the minute we come in that loose lips sink ships," he said.
Those details were kept locked in a safe with a red sticker marked secret. But when the charts and travel plans were laid out, Abu-Jihaad could see them in his job as a signalman, Navy officials say.
The Benfold and other ships left San Diego in March 2001. Their first stop was Hawaii, where the sailors were treated to a luau feast.
As the ship headed toward the Middle East, Abu-Jihaad began to send e-mails to Azzam Publications, a Web site that authorities say provided money and equipment to terrorists.
While the Cole was the worst nightmare for commanders, Abu-Jihaad called it a martyrdom operation in one of his e-mails to Azzam and praised "the men who have brong (sic) honor ... in the lands of jihad Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, etc."
Abu-Jihaad signed the e-mail: "A brother serving a kuffar nation," meaning nonbeliever or infidel, according to testimony. He also ordered graphic videos from Azzam that depicted Muslim fighters in Chechnya and Bosnia.
"He seemed to be fascinated with the Chechen conflict and seemed to be supportive of the Chechen rebels," Amador said, not thinking much of it at the time.
Abu-Jihaad kept communicating with Azzam until a little over a week before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Shortly after the attacks, a company that hosted Web sites raised concerns with federal authorities about one of Azzam's Web sites in Connecticut. That complaint led investigators to those they say ran Azzam in London, where they say they found the leaked ship details in an apartment.
Authorities also say they found Abu-Jihaad's e-mail account with Azzam. They were able to recover e-mails he exchanged with the group, but say accounts were regularly purged by e-mail service providers.
Authorities acknowledge they do not have direct proof that Abu-Jihaad leaked the classified details. His attorneys call the case weak, urging a judge Friday to dismiss the charges while prosecutors objected.
Navy officials acknowledged that the allegedly leaked details were filled with errors. Still, they say the leak was alarming and they would have immediately changed plans had they known about the compromise at the time.
The ships were never attacked.
The Navy did plenty of soul searching after the Cole attack, said Rear Adm. David Hart Jr., commander of the battle group.
"It was a very vulnerable period of time for us," Hart testified.
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Wild Thing's comment........
Its called treason and if you review the record, you see that American Muslims are on the same sheet of music as their overseas murderous brothers and sisters......Item: Several days before the invasion of Iraq, a muslim in the 101st Airborne Division murdered a Major and Captain in their tent in a fragging incident. Now this. There are more examples. Yet the PC crowd at the Pentagon led by that dishrag Gordon England crow about the "religon of peace" and crap about its contribution to civilization.
“His attorneys call the case weak, urging a judge Friday to dismiss the charges while prosecutors objected.”
Hang this bastard from the yard arm for treason.
This is horrible all this PC rules applying in our military and it puts our service men and women in tremendous danger!
This saiilor should be given the old punishment of being given lashes around the Fleet and when completed, be strung up on the USS Cole’s yardarm, in front of his muslim “Buddies”....I have no remorse for these type of traitors.
The Navy did plenty of soul searching after the Cole attack, said Rear Adm. David Hart Jr., commander of the battle group. "It was a very vulnerable period of time for us," Hart testified.
Notice how Rear Adm. David Hart Jr. uses past tense in his testimony. Last I heard, there were some 15,000 Muslims in the Armed Forces, and how many converts might there be NOT using an Arabic name, who have NOT declared their mohammadanism and their intent to fight the kuffar in the cause of Allah?
Seems to me the folks at the Defense Department are aware of the danger that lurks within, but while the official policy is 'Islam is just one of the three great religions' an entire flotilla of Navy ships could be blown out of the water before the threat from mohammadanism is officially declared. In other words, a whole lot of good people need to die first.
The solution will not come from the top...rather, the service people themselves need to understand that each one of their lives is at stake - when their declared enemies are able to dine at the same table and are privy to operational secrets. As it is, the young men and women who are at the front lines of the war against the killer-cult of Mohammad are sacrificial lambs.
This with the Muslims in our military reminds me of the Walkers spy ring. When the Soviet Union was receiving U.S. Naval code keys from the Walker family spy ring, and that spy ring began in 1967 and was not be broken until 1985. The spy ring made it possible for the Soviets to read U.S. Navy coded transmissions like an open book for much of that time.
Posted by Wild Thing at March 4, 2008 02:50 AM
Comments
But advance movements were a closely guarded secret. Dennis Amador, a quartermaster and Abu-Jihaad's supervisor, told his wife where he was in code.
"We in the Navy are taught from the minute we come in that loose lips sink ships," he said.
First of all, Quartermaster Dennis Amador should be Courts Martialed for telling his wife where he was in violation of regulations. The start of Desert Storm was almost delayed because a B-52 Crew Chief notified his wife back in the states that "the bombing was going to start tonight". The wife called all her friends to let them know she knew something of big importance...I know something you don't know...telling everyone when the bombing was going to start. Wives started calling their husbands and it got up-channeled real fast.
Abu-Jihaad, an American born Muslim convert, changed his name from Paul Hall in 1997. A year later, he was granted security clearance that gave him access to secrets, according to Navy officials.
I wonder if the Navy learned anything from this?
Posted by: BobF at March 4, 2008 08:53 AM
Indeed, you're right. No question -- this is treason. The penalty for treason is death.
And I wonder if America will ever realize that despite being politically incorrect, treating Muslim converts as "just another religion" is wrong -- they're terrorists who want to destroy America, plain and simple.
Posted by: Ogre at March 4, 2008 09:26 AM
Is death by firing squad still the prefered method of execution for treason?
Why do we even let Muslims in the military? I thought they didn't like violence!
Religion of Peace my butt!
But Clinton should have been brought up on treason charges, too, for losing the nuclear football with all our launch codes.
You know he sold them to the highest bidder and pocketed the money.
Posted by: Lynn at March 4, 2008 09:37 AM
Where was the FBI, ONI doing a background investigation on this Jihaad guy. The Navy just doesn't hand out clearances, to anybody. At least they didn't use to.
There used to be four classifications of Clearance: Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, and Cryto-top-Secret. Anything above Confidential, the individual better have a spotless record.(at least that use to be the criteria)
This was for communications, what the other MOS's do is probably somewhat different but basically has to be as intense.
Also it use to be that classified information was only distributed on a NEED TO KNOW BASIS. On all incoming messages there was a pecking order, on the need to know list: Always the CO, XO, and down the line to be distributed to the pertinent departments of what was in the message.
I don't know what this guys job(MOS) was but it seems to me he violated quite a few regs. by his actions.
But there should be an investigation to find out who apporved this jerkwad in the first place.
Posted by: Mark at March 4, 2008 10:06 AM
I agree with all the above comments, this guy is a traitor.
Makes me wonder where the breakdown really was. It's bad enought to have a traitor amongst the ranks. The Navy should have conducted a general Courts Marshall for Paul Hall aka Abu-Jihaad on deck with immediate execution and burial at sea. A graphic example for all, that this traitor not only directly endangered their lives but that he jeapordized the security of their homeland. That aside, who granted the security clearance? I know for damn sure getting a secret clearance is no cake walk, mine took months and everyone I knew called to ask if I was in trouble, yes, back then they did a thorough investigation, even my two trips into Canada were vetted by the FBI. I got the clearance and I still honor the obligation long after it has expired. This kid glove treatment bothers me, I didn't have a security clearance overseas but was privy to some serious troop movements, I was always asked 'what's happening?' because I was a temporary Plt. Sgt. and working out of my MOS, it's not easy to look them in the eye and tell them nothing when it's their lives on the line. You just can't risk them talking about a mission around any civilians, including family.
Posted by: Jack at March 4, 2008 11:27 AM
Are our intelligence services functioning at all. Both the CIA and FBI have dropped the ball in regards to muslim spies and the military seems unable to check backgrounds anymore for clearances. Of course I remember when the Clintons wre inviting Red Chinese over to visit our most sensitive facilities like Sandia Labs and Edwards AFB.
Posted by: TomR at March 4, 2008 02:05 PM
Bob thanks for sharing that about Desert Storm.
I met Nick way after he was in the service, but he told me about how he was checked out all the way back to his birth to qualify him to be able to work with " Top Secret" things done in a climatic hanger that wanted him to work in. He told me how honored he was that they considered him and how he only would say to his parents I am fine mom and dad not much happening. There was NO way he would even tell him about anything he was donig especially affter he was classified for top secret work in the Navy.
My point is if he went through all the investigating since he was born kind of thing I would think our Navy today would do the same thing where codes come in to play. It is so bad that it looks like they are lax about it or something is so wrong in so many ways. And it is putting our good guys in danger because of the bad ones.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 4, 2008 06:44 PM
Ogre I agree it is wrong from the start when they can't call our enemy what it is.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 4, 2008 06:45 PM
Lynn, Clinton too I agree. I wish he had been punished for his crimes, we as a country will be paying the price for what Bill Clinton did for a very long time, maybe forever.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 4, 2008 06:47 PM
Mark I agree, see my comment to Bob too. I wonder too if it has changed or something or what they heck is going on.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 4, 2008 06:54 PM
Jack same here with Nick, there is no way and he still feels that same honor about it he felt back then.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 4, 2008 06:58 PM
Tom I wonder too, it is almost like PC has infiltrated into every aspect and at every level.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 4, 2008 07:00 PM
DEATH for all traitors in a time of WAR and national security... Walk the plank 2008!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at March 6, 2008 12:20 AM
The muslim soldier that rolled grenades into the tent in Kuwait - Sgt. Ackbar - got DEATH and is at Ft. Leavenworth Kansas. The tent he attacked was full of US Army chopper warrant officers I believe... Death was a just verdict and no different than the Nazi U-Boat saboteurs in WW II that were caught in Florida and New York... FDR elecrocuted most of them. ZZZZZZAP!!
Posted by: drstrangeloveb52isok at March 6, 2008 12:28 AM
Darth I hope there will be a death penalty and that it will be followed through and not just promised.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 6, 2008 01:05 AM
drstrangeloveb52isok, thanks for the information. Well I sure as heck hope they do put him to death. He deserves no less and they better do it soon, why keep him around breathing he is not worth it.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 6, 2008 01:07 AM
