According to various news reports, Nasser Jason Abdo, an AWOL soldier from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was arrested at a traffic light today yesterday near Fort Hood, Texas, on an outstanding warrant for child pornography charges. Abdo, a Muslim who had been granted conscientious objector status, was reportedly found with “large quantities of ammunition, weapons and what appeared to be the makings of a bomb,” and confessed to police that he planned to “get even” (whether for the porn charges or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is unclear). He was caught after stopping by a gun store near Fort Hood — the same one that sold weapons to Nidal Hasan before his 2009 rampage that left thirteen people dead.
Local police were initially alerted to the man by the owners of Guns Galore who reported him as “suspicious.”
A clerk at the store, who identified himself to ABC News as Mr. Ebert, said Abdo came to the store Wednesday afternoon looking for gunpowder and “reloading options.”
Ebert called the police after he said he felt “concerned with the quantity of his request and his general demeanor.”
Last year, Abdo told ABC News, “Any Muslim who knows his religion or maybe takes into account what his religion says can find out very clearly why he should not participate in the U.S. military.” We’ll bring you updates as this whole crazy mess unfolds.
Official: Bomb materials found in soldier’s room near Fort Hood [CNN]
Fort Hood Plot: AWOL U.S. Serviceman Arrested [ABC News]
Update: More information on Abdo’s plan, from ABC News:
He allegedly did not plan to attack the base itself, but instead planned to plant a bomb at a nearby restaurant popular with Ft. Hood personnel.
