Federal prosecutors charged a US soldier suspected of planning to shoot and blow up fellow servicemembers near Fort Hood with possessing an illegal firearm Friday.
Army Private Naser Jason Abdo, 21, was arrested Wednesday after police found bombmaking materials and literature in his motel room, along with a copy of Al-Qaeda English-language magazine Inspire.
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.
A query with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Records found that "there were no firearms, including destructive devices, registered to Naser Jason Abdo," said a statement by a US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives listed in 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 US Magistrate Judge Jeffrey 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 Major Nidal Hasan, who shot 45 people, killing 13 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.
Source: AFP American Edition
