~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Los Angeles Times

Soldier suspected of planning Ft. Hood attack

Naser Jason Abdo, 21, is arrested at a Texas motel after buying gunpowder. A U.S. official says he intended to target a restaurant popular with military personnel.

by David S. Cloud

July 29, 2011

Reporting from Washington

A possible terrorist plot against military personnel at Ft. Hood in Texas was disrupted with the arrest of an Army private who had purchased ammunition and bomb-making materials in preparation for such an attack, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, a 21-year-old Texas native who had successfully argued that he was a conscientious objector whose Muslim faith would not allow him to deploy to Afghanistan, was arrested at a motel Wednesday by Killeen, Texas, police after his purchase of gunpowder at a local gun store aroused employees' suspicion. Abdo, who had been charged this year with possession of child pornography, had been absent without leave since early July.

Authorities suspect that Abdo, who was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky, was planning to construct bombs and detonate them at a restaurant popular with Ft. Hood personnel, according to a U.S. official who has been briefed on the case. Abdo intended to gun down survivors after the bombs went off, said the official, who asked not to be named because he is not in law enforcement.

"Military personnel were targeted," Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin said at a news conference Thursday. After interviewing Abdo, authorities believe he was acting alone, Baldwin said.

"I would classify it as a terror plot," he said.

The U.S. official said Abdo chose the Ft. Hood area for the planned attack because the base was the scene of a 2009 shooting rampage. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32 at a medical facility there.

The gun store in Killeen, near Ft. Hood, that Abdo visited was the same one where Hasan bought weapons and ammunition, authorities said. Hasan is awaiting court-martial on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, charges that could bring the death penalty.

Abdo's life seemed to spin out of control in recent months. In May, the Army accepted his claim to be a conscientious objector. But a week later, the Army put the resulting discharge on hold after charging him with possession of child pornography and beginning court-martial proceedings against him.

Abdo has denied the charges and says they are retaliation for refusing to go to Afghanistan.

He went AWOL from Ft. Campbell on July 4 and had not been heard from until his arrest at the motel, the U.S. official said. In a backpack and in the motel room, authorities found six pounds of smokeless gunpowder, Christmas lights and battery-operated clocks, a pressure cooker, a handgun and shotgun shells, the official said.

"Since he is in the custody of civilian authorities, jurisdiction over any potential new charges is yet to be determined. If returned to military control, he may face additional charges including AWOL," Army spokesman Col. Thomas W. Collins said in a statement.

In an interview with CNN last year about his request for conscientious objector status, Abdo said that when he joined the Army in 2009, he did not think his religion would prevent him from serving in combat. "I was under the impression that I could serve both the U.S. Army and my God simultaneously," he said.

But as his deployment to Afghanistan neared, he began to reconsider. "I don't believe that Islam allows me to operate in any kind of warfare at all, including the U.S. military and any war it partakes in. I believe that our first duty as a Muslim is to serve God," he told CNN.

Abdo is being held at the Killeen City Jail pending federal charges, Baldwin said. "He is a very dangerous individual, and he's where he needs to be," he said.

"We've been through a lot in this community," Baldwin said. "We're probably more familiar with this kind of environment than most."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-soldier-fort-hood-20110729,0,6009856,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emails to White House didn't mention gun sting

An ATF supervisor who was asked to provide information on efforts to stop weapons trafficking to Mexico did not mention Fast and Furious, a botched operation that let guns reach drug cartels.

by Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

July 28, 2011

Reporting from Washington

The ATF's field supervisor on the Southwest border sent a series of emails last year to a top White House national security official detailing the agency's ambitious efforts to stop weapons trafficking into Mexico, but did not mention that a botched sting operation had allowed hundreds of guns to flow to drug cartels.

Over three days in September 2010, William D. Newell, a 20-year veteran who at the time was the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' field operations in Arizona and New Mexico, briefed Kevin M. O'Reilly, director of North American affairs for the White House national security staff. Newell sent the emails in advance of a meeting between Mexican officials and John Brennan, President Obama's deputy national security advisor.

A White House official confirmed Thursday that Newell had said nothing about the specific tactics used to fight weapons traffickers, which included allowing "straw" purchasers to buy guns without immediately arresting them, in hopes the small-time traffickers would lead authorities to the cartels and reveal smuggling routes into Mexico. The so-called Fast and Furious operation was run out of the ATF's Phoenix field office.

DOCUMENTS: The Fast and Furious paper trail

As soon as Fast and Furious began in November 2009, ATF agents complained about orders to let the guns "walk" — a risky move that failed when the ATF lost track of most of the weapons. By the time of Newell's emails to the White House 10 months later, the ATF was trying to contain the knowledge that hundreds of guns had dropped out of sight and wound up on the streets of Mexico and the U.S.

On Sept. 1, 2010, O'Reilly reached out to Newell, a longtime friend. "We want John Brennan well-prepared to talk GRIT with the Mexicans next Wednesday," he wrote, referring to the Gun Runner Impact Team's efforts against the cartels.

Newell responded the next day. He mentioned a trafficking case — one outside the Fast and Furious program — and noted plans for a news conference to announce arrests.

"Sounds good," O'Reilly replied.

In subsequent emails, Newell told O'Reilly that "we will take action against those folks" who are small-time weapons traffickers. "In reality, we look at 'straw' purchasers as the lowest ring on the firearms trafficking ladder," he said, "but in many investigations we need their cooperation in order to identify the real traffickers and middlemen."

This tactic "adds tremendous leverage to our efforts to get the truth from them so we can work our way up the ladder" to the cartels, he said.

Newell did not mention Fast and Furious, but the goals he outlined to O'Reilly closely matched the intent of the program, which Newell oversaw.

The operation was a secret guarded so carefully that it was kept even from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, which had complained about a surge of assault weapons. Nearly 200 of the Fast and Furious weapons eventually turned up at crime scenes in Mexico.

The series of emails obtained by The Times are the first indication that the White House was not immediately told of the failures of Fast and Furious, which ultimately lost track of about 1,700 guns.

A White House official said Thursday that Newell's emails were "not in relation to Fast and Furious" but rather to brief the White House about other trafficking cases to prep Brennan. The official asked not to be identified because Congress and the inspector general's office of the Justice Department have ongoing investigations.

"There was no mention of investigative tactics like letting the guns walk or the details of how this was all going down," the official said.

"The attorney general has made clear he takes the allegations about Fast and Furious very seriously, and that's why he asked for the inspector general to investigate the matter," the official said. "And it's also why you see the Justice Department cooperating with the House oversight committee."

Asked whether Newell meant to keep the White House in the dark about Fast and Furious, the official replied, "That's a great question for Newell."

Newell could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Paul E. Pelletier, declined to comment.

Asked by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) at a hearing Tuesday if he had discussed Fast and Furious in any forum with O'Reilly, Newell said, "I might have talked to him about this case, yes sir."

He added that he probably "shouldn't have been sending him" the emails, suggesting that doing so skirted his normal chain of command. But he called O'Reilly "a friend of mine. He asked for information, and I provided it to him."

One of the first cases under Fast and Furious involved weapons from a firearms store in Glendale, Ariz. The ATF soon lost track of those guns, and two guns bought there in January 2010 showed up 11 months later at the scene where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died in a firefight.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fast-furious-emails-20110729,0,3056132,print.story

.