Accused soldier known for opinions on Islam, patriotism, guns

By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

EVERETT, Wash. -- A National Guardsman accused of trying to share military information with the al-Qaida terrorist network was passionate about firearms, his conversion to Islam in college and the military.

Some of Spc. Ryan G. Anderson's interests date to his teenage years, when in high school he scrawled a drawing of a machine gun and a Confederate flag in a friend's yearbook. As an adult, Anderson wrote frequently to local newspapers about gun rights and religious freedom.

On Thursday, Anderson, 26, was arrested at Fort Lewis, one month before he was to be deployed to Iraq, for investigation of offering military information to the enemy. Defense officials in Washington D.C., speaking on condition of anonymity, say Anderson signed on to extremist chat rooms on the Internet and tried to get in touch with al-Qaida operatives, offering information on U.S. military capabilities and weaponry.

It doesn't appear he transmitted any information to al-Qaida, they said.

Anderson grew up Everett, 30 miles north of Seattle. On Friday, TV satellite trucks lingered on the street outside his parents' home, where a large American flag hung outside the garage.

The family made no appearance, but his father Bruce Anderson, stepmother Jaclyn and wife Erin issued a statement saying the family "is stunned" by the arrest. They asked the media to "respect our wishes not to be a part of any news story."

Ryan Anderson and his wife moved to Lynnwood, just north of Seattle, several months ago. He reported to Fort Lewis near Tacoma on Nov. 15, when the guard's 4,200-member 81st Brigade was called to active duty.

No one answered a knock at the Andersons' apartment door Friday. A newspaper with its front-page report on his arrest lay unopened on the doorstep.

Upstairs neighbor Don Simmons, 52, said he did not know Ryan: "He was hardly ever here."

"The FBI was actually here for days staking the place out, seeing who was coming and going," said Simmons, whose wife, Cindy Smith, manages the sprawling Cambridge Square North apartment complex.

Smith declined comment, but Simmons said she called police about the men watching the complex, who claimed to work for the phone company but refused to offer identification. Police arrived, talked to the operatives, and left in a hurry, Simmons said.

FBI Special Agent Robbie Burroughs confirmed the agency is involved.

The arrest is "shocking, but it's not too shocking, knowing how Ryan is," said Nathan Knopp, a friend of Anderson's since they graduated from Everett's Cascade High School in 1995.

"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."

Knopp, who is in the Navy, declined to talk about Anderson to The Associated Press Friday, saying the Navy asked him not to discuss the case.

But he showed an AP reporter and photographer a copy of his 1995 yearbook, where he said Anderson had drawn an elaborate sketch of a machine gun, and a Confederate flag, adding, "Have a (expletive) great summer. Let's overthrow the government!" He signed it R. "Za Savierski" Anderson.

Gary Axtell, a retired principal at Cascade, remembered Anderson as "a nice guy." Anderson was vice president of the school chapter of Junior Statesmen of America, an organization that teaches students about government. Otherwise, he said, "I don't remember anything standing out."

After high school, Anderson attended Washington State University in Pullman, where he earned a degree in history in 2002.

He began studying Islam in 1999, Anderson said in a recent letter to The Herald, published in 2002.

Anderson attended Ramadan and almost daily services at the Pullman mosque in December 2000, but was not seen there otherwise, said Irshad Altheimer, a WSU graduate student from Tacoma and former president of the WSU Muslim Student Association.

"He wasn't very active in the mosque or Muslim student association," Altheimer said Friday. He characterized his relationship with Anderson as "superficial," and said he "never heard him talk about extremist ideology.

"We talked about religious issues. It seemed almost like he was almost reluctant to talk about the military in the mosque."

In a November 2002 letter to The Herald, Anderson wrote: "In my three years as an observant Muslim, I've encountered nothing but kindness, patience, courtesy and understanding from them. On the other hand, I have experienced bigotry, hatred and mindless rage from so-called `educated thinkers' here in the U.S."

Anderson also wrote emphatic letters about his views on weapons.

"Should any law be passed which allows anyone to come and, without due cause, take my arms, I and every other lawfully armed American citizen has a right to resist that degradation with every means possible," he wrote The Herald in January 1999.

"This is America. Millions have died for our freedoms, and I'd rather die too than see it taken away."

About seven months earlier, May 22, 1998, Anderson was arrested at gunpoint by Snohomish County sheriff's deputies as he carried a large caliber military rifle with a bayonet past a grade school near his home.

He was released after authorities determined he had not broken any laws. Anderson had been home on a break from college, and said he wanted to show a friend his newly acquired rifles.

This isnt actually my attempt to slam the NRA, but instead it is my attempt to show that profiling a group can cut both ways... some like to say most terrorists are "muslims", that may be somewhat true, depending on your definitions... we can also say most people that shoot a crowd of people or blow up federal buildings, or join racist militias are avid gun owners, mostly white males- like phil.... most kids that shoot their school up are in gun owning families....

Profiling can cut both ways, people....