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Jury convicts former Navy sailor of leaking details about his own ship
From the International Herald Tribune:
A former Navy sailor was convicted Wednesday of leaking details about ship movements to suspected terrorism supporters, an act that could have endangered his own crewmates.
Jurors convicted Hassan Abu-Jihaad, 32, of Phoenix of providing material support to terrorists and disclosing classified national defense information on the second day of deliberations.
The American-born Muslim convert formerly known as Paul R. Hall faces up to 25 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in May. His attorney, Dan LaBelle, said an appeal was likely.
“We’re disappointed with the verdict, but we respect the process. It was a close case,” LaBelle said.
Reached by telephone Wednesday afternoon, a juror called the case “difficult” and said there was plenty of debate in two days of deliberations.
“It was a very, very difficult decision to make,” said the juror, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of the case. “It was not something that was clear cut. When we concluded, there was not a doubt in our mind.”
Abu-Jihaad’s relatives declined to comment as they left the courthouse.
The leak came amid increased wariness on the part of Navy commanders whose ships headed to the Persian Gulf in the months after a terrorist ambush in 2000 killed 17 sailors aboard the USS Cole.
You have to admit it’s pretty brazen to collude with terrorists when you have a name like Hassan Abu-Jihaad. Did he really think he wouldn’t get noticed?
-Chris Jones
Pentagon Releases Video Of Iranian Boats Provoking U.S. Navy
Pentagon Has Video, Audio of Iranian Naval Incident
The Pentagon has video and audio tape of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday in which armed Iranian speedboats swarmed three US warships and radioed a threat to blow them up.
A Pentagon official, said he understood that the audio portion of the tape includes the threat radioed by one of the Iranian vessels to blow up the US ships.
He said the video consists mainly of long shots of Iranian vessels in the water, but also captures the sounds of ship horns and communications in the bridge of the US ships.
Pentagon officials said the Iranians also dropped white floating boxes into the path of the Ingraham, a guided missile frigate which passed by them without incident.
The US warships issued warnings and engaged in evasive maneuvers but no shots were fired during the encounter, which lasted less than 30 minutes, according to US defense officials.
CNN: Iranian Boats Attempt To Provoke U.S. Navy Ships
Five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route off the Iranian coast.
Citing unidentified U.S. officials, CNN said the Iranian vessels came within 200 yards (meters) of the U.S. ships in international waters in the strait of Hormuz, and Sailors came very close to opening fire.
The Iranian were allegedly “attack craft” that made threating maneuvers against the Navy vessels and threatening radio transmissions.
A radio transmission from one of the Iranian ships said, “I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes.”
After the radio transmission the Navy ships prepared to fire, but at the last second the Iranian ships turned away.
Considering that the U.S. has two aircraft carriers off the coast of Iran, it’s amazing that the Iranians could act in such a provocative fashion.
-Chris Jones
2 US Sailors Shot to Death in Bahrain
A U.S. Navy sailor allegedly shot and killed two female sailors early Monday in the barracks of an American military base in Bahrain, a Navy official said.
The alleged shooter, a male, was critically wounded in the shooting at the U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain base, said the Navy official, who was not authorized to release the information to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official did not say if the alleged shooter shot himself or if anyone else was involved, but the Navy said the shooting was not terror related and only involved U.S. military personnel.
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