AWOL Soldier Trial Enters Second Day
News Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012WACO, Texas (AP) _ Prosecutors in Texas say a Muslim soldier was stopped just hours before completing assembly of a bomb that he planned to detonate at a restaurant full of Fort Hood troops.
Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo faces up to life in prison if convicted of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and five other charges.
In opening statements at the federal trial in Waco, prosecutor Gregg Sofer said that when Abdo was arrested at a motel near the Army post in July, police found components for an explosive device in his room and backpack, showing he “intended to commit mass murder.”
But lead defense attorney Zach Boyd countered that no bomb was ever built.
Abdo was AWOL from Fort Campbell, Ky., when he was arrested in Killeen. He told investigators that he went to Texas to “martyr himself” for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to FBI special agent C. Michael Owens, the first prosecution witness.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Posted by Chace Murphy
on May 23 2012. Filed under News.
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Reading your headline, what, pray tell, is a solider? Is an oak tree “solider” than a pine tree? Just wondering.
A retired U. S. Army Lieutenant Colonel
Thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes my editing skills are not what they
sholudshould be.