US arrests ex-navy man for spying for Al-Qaeda

WASHINGTON: A former US Navy sailor was arrested on Wednesday for supplying a pro-Al-Qaeda website with information on US ship movements and vulnerabilities, justice authorities said.

Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R Hall, was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona on charges that he had supplied information on a US Navy battle group involved in missions against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to London-based Azzam Publications and the Azzam.com website, authorities said in a statement.

Abujihaad was being held in Phoenix for transfer to New Haven, Connecticut, where he will be prosecuted, it said.

The charges are tied to a pending terrorism case involving two British nationals linked to Azzam who are currently facing a US request for extradition from Britain.

The Azzam website had been hosted on servers in Connecticut.    The Justice Department statement said that while Abujihaad was serving in the Middle East aboard the ship USS Benfold in 2000-2001, he supplied Azzam with classified information on his battle group's movements between California and the Gulf.

The documents he supplied included a discussion of the perceived vulnerabilities of the battle group, which at the time was on a mission to enforce sanctions against the Afghan Taliban regime and undertake operations against Al-Qaeda.

Charges against Abujihaad, who left the navy in January 2002, include providing material support and resources to Azzam knowing these would be used to attack Americans, and providing US defense secrets to unauthorized people.

The charges could bring him 25 years in jail.