Hartford Courant : Terror Allegations Denied

Terror Allegations Denied

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, Courant Staff Writer | April 5, 2007

NEW HAVEN -- A former American sailor pleaded not guilty Wednesday to providing terrorists with information about U.S. ship movements and vulnerabilities, in a case involving a massive amount of classified material about international terror.

Hassan Abujihaad, a U.S. citizen formerly known as Paul R. Hall, is accused of providing material support to terrorists and transmitting national defense information.

Two alleged recipients of Abujihaad's information - Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan - are British nationals living in London. Both are fighting extradition to the U.S. after being charged in a related case with operating a series of websites that raised money, weapons, equipment, soldiers and support for terror groups in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

After taking Abujihaad's not guilty pleas Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz briefly questioned federal prosecutors about the logistics of storing and protecting classified evidence in the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Nardini said most of the evidence consists of computer data seized by federal agencies from "a variety of locations."

The raw computer data alone are equivalent to four times the amount of printed material stored in the Library of Congress, Nardini said.

Kravitz appointed federal experts to arrange a secure method of storing the material and asked federal prosecutors to devise a means of screening it for dissemination to Abujihaad's court-appointed defense lawyer, Dan E. LaBelle.

Nothing has been introduced in court indicating that Abujihaad, Ahmad or Ahsan were ever in Connecticut. But the case is indicted in Connecticut because prosecutors say part of the men's communications passed through websites and e-mail accounts on the computer servers of a Connecticut-based Web-hosting company.

Abujihaad, a 31-year-old father of two who lives in Phoenix, neither said nor did anything in court to indicate what he is thinking about his perilous legal situation. If convicted, the bearded warehouseman faces up to 25 years in prison. He wore the same orange prison jumpsuit he wore during a previous appearance in court, stood meekly beside his lawyer and answered "Yes, your honor" on the infrequent occasions when Kravitz asked him a procedural question.

Kravitz scheduled a hearing on April 11, during which Abujihaad can argue that he should be released on bail.

Abujihaad, a former signalman with a secret security classification, was stationed aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Benfold from 1998 to 2002.

In the spring of 2001, the Benfold was part of a San Diego-based battle group ordered to the Persian Gulf to enforce sanctions against Iraq and operate against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

The indictment charging Abujihaad says that many of his e-mails to Ahmad, Ahsan and their Internet support network were sent from the Benfold. Federal computer experts have retrieved e-mails in which Ahmad and Ahsan replied to Abujihaad, asking whether it was "safe" to send electronic materials to his shipboard military address.

The first record of Abujihaad communicating with Ahmad and Ahsan by computer is dated Aug. 21, 2000, the indictment says. He inquired about purchases he made through Ahmad and Ahsan of videos depicting Muslim holy war in Chechnya and Bosnia.

In March or April of 2001, Abujihaad is accused of e-mailing Ahmad and Ahsan information about his battle group's impending move from southern California to the Persian Gulf. The information, found on a computer disc in Ahmad's bedroom in his parent's house in London, detailed the specifications, assignments and missions of the ships comprising the group. In addition, the disc contained the date the group would pass through the Strait of Hormuz and the order in which its ships would be sailing. In places, the ship channel through the strait is only a mile wide.

The information on the disc also speculated on the battle group's vulnerability as it moved through the strait at night and under communications blackout. The information said the group would be limited in its defense from attack by small craft armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

Abujihaad was discharged from the Navy in January 2002. When he learned in 2004 that Ahmad had been arrested in London, Abujihaad destroyed his holy war videos and tried to erase computer files that could link him to the London organization, prosecutors say.

However, in December, FBI agents secretly recorded Abujihaad saying that he had corresponded by e-mail with Azzam Publications in London and had e-mailed information on the Benfold's battle group.

Contact Edmund H. Mahony at emahony@courant.com.