Fort Hood Plot: AWOL Soldier Planned Dual Bombing, Shooting, Officials SayBy RHONDA SCHWARTZ
July 28, 2011
A U.S. serviceman is in custody after he allegedly admitted he was planning an attack on the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, the same base where 13 people were killed in a 2009 terror attack.
U.S. officials told ABC News an AWOL serviceman, identified by the FBI as a Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo, was arrested Wednesday after making a purchase at Guns Galore in Killeen, Texas, the same ammunition store where Maj. Nidal Hasan purchased the weapons he allegedly used to gun down 13 people and wound 32 others on Nov. 5, 2009.
Abdo, 21, allegedly told law enforcement he wanted to "get even" and was targeting Ft. Hood because of the previous attack there allegedly carried out by Hasan, according to law enforcement documents obtained by ABC News. He allegedly did not plan to attack the base itself, but instead planned to plant a bomb at a nearby restaurant popular with Ft. Hood personnel.
He was in the process of building two bombs and hoped to detonate both at the target location before using a pistol to shoot survivors, the documents say.
The soldier had gone AWOL over the July 4 weekend from Fort Campbell's 101st Airborne Division in Kentucky over 800 miles away, according to a senior military officer.
When he was arrested, Abdo was in possession of large quantities of ammunition, weapons and what appeared to be the makings of a bomb, according to early accounts from law enforcement. He had also apparently purchased an Army uniform with Fort Hood patches from a local surplus store.
Abdo told ABC News in 2010 he was Muslim and should not have to participate in what he called an "unjust war" in the Middle East.
PHOTO Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo is shown in this file photo.
ABC/Facebook
Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo is shown... View Full Size
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"Any Muslim who knows his religion or maybe takes into account what his religion says can find out very clearly why he should not participate in the U.S. military," Abdo said then.
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Abdo had filed for conscientious objector status, which had been approved by the Secretary of the Army, but his discharge was put on hold after Abdo was charged with having child pornography on his computer, an Army spokesperson told ABC News.
On a Facebook page apparently maintained by Abdo, he writes in the most recent post on June 22 that it was two days after the Secretary approved his discharge that he was charged with having 34 images of child pornography on the computer.
"As god says, 'The end is ultimately with the believers' Quran," the post says.
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Gun Store Clerk: 'There Was Clearly Something Wrong With Him'
Local police were initially alerted to Abdo by the owners of Guns Galore who reported him as "suspicious."
A clerk at the store, who identified himself to ABC News as Mr. Ebert, said Abdo came to the store Wednesday afternoon looking for gunpowder and "reloading options."
Ebert called the police after he said he felt "concerned with the quantity of his request and his general demeanor."
"There was clearly something wrong with him," Ebert said.
According to the documents, military officials believe the incident "was likely isolated to the Fort Hood area and the suspect in custody, and that arrest of the suspect has mitigated any further threats related to this incident."
A spokesperson for the Killeen Police Department, which has Abdo in custody, said the AWOL soldier from Fort Campbell was arrested for an outstanding warrant for child pornography and did not have information about the alleged plot against the base.
Abdo's former lawyer, James M. Branum, declined to comment for this report except to say he hasn't spoken with his client "in a long time."
