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PHOENIX - Police in Arizona arrested a former US Navy sailor on charges of spying and providing material support to terrorists, authorities said on Wednesday.
The US Attorney's office in Connecticut said Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul Hall, 31, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint in Phoenix.
He is suspected of providing classified information to a London-based organisation called Azzam Publications and knowing that it was to be used in a conspiracy to kill US citizens. Azzam was part of a conspiracy to provide material support and communications links to people engaged in terrorism, prosecutors said.
The charges related to disclosure a US Navy battle group movements as it traveled from California to the Gulf in 2001, prosecutors said in a news release.
The suspected disclosures occurred just months after an attack by suicide bombers on the USS Cole during a refueling stop in Yemen in October 2000, which killed 17 sailors and injured dozens more.
If convicted on both charges, Abujihaad faces a maximum term of 25 years in jail.
The charges were brought in Connecticut because the Azzam Publications Web sites were hosted for a time on servers in the state.
The complaint alleged that Abujihaad sent several e-mails to members of Azzam while he was on active duty in the Middle East and stationed aboard the USS Benfold, a ship in the battle group whose movements were disclosed.
The e-mails were recovered in a December 2003 search by British police of the London home of Babar Ahmad, a British national linked to Azzam.
Aside from details of the warships' movements, a document Abujihaad is accused of leaking went on to discuss the group's perceived vulnerability to terrorist attack, prosecutors said.
The e-mails were said to include discussions of videos Abujihaad ordered from Azzam that promoted violent holy war, or jihad, and a small donation of money he made to the organisation.
Abujihaad had described a recent force-protection briefing given aboard his ship, "voiced enmity" toward America, and praised Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the mujahideen, or holy warriors, the prosecutors said.
Another e-mail praised the Cole attack, which Abujihaad described as a "martyrdom operation," and advised Azzam that such tactics were working and taking their toll.
Authorities said Azzam Publications responded with an e-mail encouraging Abujihaad to "keep up ... the psychological warfare."
Abujihaad was discharged from active duty from the United States Navy in January 2002, authorities said.
- REUTERS
