The arrest is "shocking, but it's not too shocking, knowing how Ryan is," said Nathan Knopp, a high school friend.

"He was always a paramilitary type of guy, really into military weaponry," Knopp told The Herald on Thursday. "Ryan's kind of a weird type of guy who made up a lot of stories that seemed really far-fetched."

from Arrested Soldier Wrote of Bigotry in U.S. (AP, 2/14/04, courtesy MyWay News)*

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I had a suspicion Ryan Anderson might turn out to be more like a "mercenary wannbe" than a witless victim of radical indoctrination. I had a next-door neighbor just like that, years back: He attended a famous Southern military college (claimed to have graduated; I had my doubts), but washed out of every branch of the service he tried to enlist in; was an avid reader of "Soldier of Fortune" and "Gung Ho" magazines; and was so desperate to wear a uniform and carry a weapon that he went the security guard route... and washed out there, too.

You know the saying: "... if he had enough brains, he'd be dangerous". That former neighbor didn't. I don't think this kid in Washington does, either.
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[* - Thanks, Tom, for a link to MyWay you posted a month or three back. It's very convenient.]