The Associated Press
A National Guardsman stationed at Fort Lewis was arrested today and charged by the Army with trying to provide information to the al-Qaida terrorist network, a federal law enforcement official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Spc. Ryan G. Anderson was charged with “aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network.”
It was not immediately known what information Anderson allegedly provided.
Anderson was being held at Fort Lewis, an Army base near Tacoma.
A message left with the Army’s Lt. Col. Stephen Barger at Fort Lewis was not immediately returned. Barger, however, scheduled a news conference at the base Thursday afternoon.
Anderson, 26, is a tank crew member from the National Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade, a 4,200-member unit set to depart for Iraq for an 18-month deployment. It’s the biggest deployment for the Washington Army National Guard since World War II.
Washington State University Charleen Taylor said Anderson was a 2002 graduate with a degree in history.
The brigade has been training at Fort Lewis since November. Eighty percent of the soldiers - 3,200 - are from Washington state, and 1,000 are from guard units in California and Minnesota.
It includes two tank battalions, a mechanized infantry battalion, engineers, support troops, artillery and an intelligence company.
It’s due to return in March 2005, and be back under state authority by May 15, 2005.