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| Alaskan couple create terror hit list; plead guilty | |
| 2010-07-22 | |
Red-bearded Paul Gene Rockwood Jr., 35, a convert to Islam and a follower of a radical, anti-American cleric, faces an eight-year prison sentence — the maximum — under his plea deal. Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, 36, a dual U.S. and British citizen, is set to get five years probation, which she will be allowed to serve in Great Britain. The blue-eyed couple admitted in back-to-back hearings in U.S. District Court that they misled counter-terrorism agents in Anchorage about the source and nature of an assassination list containing the names of about 15 people in the Lower 48 they deemed enemies of Islam. Charging documents filed by the U.S. Attorney's office said Paul Rockwood drew up the hit list based on websites he read while a federal employee in King Salmon and considered shooting his targets or sending them package bombs. On a visit to Anchorage in April, Nadia Rockwood delivered the list to an unnamed person, and it somehow found its way to the FBI. The couple was interrogated about the list on May 19, which is when they lied, according to charging documents and their admissions. U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline set sentencing for Aug. 23. He withheld his decision about whether he will accept the plea deals. If he doesn't, or decides to send Nadia Rockwood to prison, the couple can withdraw their pleas and go to trial. Lying to a federal agent normally carries a maximum five-year penalty, but three years can be added if the lying concerned domestic terrorism. As the surprising case unfolded Wednesday, many questions were left unanswered. For instance, though officials knew about the hit list around the time that Nadia Rockwood brought it to Anchorage in April and they confronted the couple about it May 19, neither was ever taken into custody. After leaving King Salmon several months ago, they lived a relatively normal life in Anchorage until Paul Rockwood was led away to jail following his guilty plea Wednesday. Prosecutors agreed that Nadia Rockwood could remain free without having to post a cash bond. At a news conference after the hearings, U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler and the head of Anchorage FBI office, Kevin Fryslie, declined to say why neither was jailed during the previous months. Fryslie said steps were taken to protect the targets on the list but wouldn't go into details. There was also no information about who was on the list, other than a statement in the charges that some might have been U.S. military personnel. The list might have included institutions — at one place in Paul Rockwood's plea agreement, prosecutors said the list contained "names and entities." The plea agreement said that Paul Rockwood gave his wife the list in April to deliver it in Anchorage to another person "who Paul Rockwood believed shared his beliefs." Neither the documents, nor Loeffler and Frylie, said whether that person was an agent, informant or someone else. Also secret was how the list got from that person to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Anchorage. Did either Rockwood take any actions to further an assassination plot other than to draw up a list and read about making bombs? Loeffler wouldn't say. "Obviously the case went beyond simply going on the Web and looking at sites, because that is First Amendment (protected) speech," Loeffler said. "But when it got to handing out a target list and talking about taking action — that's all that we have in the plea agreement, and I won't go beyond that." Paul Rockwood is specifically charged with denying at the May 19 meeting that he created the list, denying the purpose of the list and denying ever having such a list of names. Nadia Rockwood denied delivering a hit list, telling the FBI it was only a book and an ordinary letter. According to the charging documents, Rockwood was living in Virginia when he converted to Islam in late 2001 or early 2002. He soon became an adherent of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a jihadist born in Las Cruces, N.M., and now believed to be hiding in Yemen. Al-Awlaki met with some of the 9/11 hijackers and has solicited jihadists for al-Qaeda over Internet sites. | |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 Another jihadist, Chesser, was arrested simultaneously with Rockwood. It will be interesting to see what the connection is. |
| Posted by: tipper 2010-07-22 14:37 |
| #2 King Salmon is not such a bad place. I would have expected boredom behavior in places like Adak or Shemya. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-07-22 10:12 |
| #1 And when he gets out of prison eight years from now he'll no longer be a jihadi, right? Right? |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2010-07-22 08:08 |