Jihadist in US Navy gets 10 years for leaking details about ship movements and how best to attack them

April 3, 2009  Jihad Watch

“Not with America but with the American enemies”

Ten years for treason — and then the judge said he hoped the sentence would be a deterrent! Hassan Abu-Jihaad Update: “Ex-sailor sentenced to 10 years in terror case,” by John Christoffersen for AP, April 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A former Navy sailor convicted of leaking details about ship movements and the best ways to attack them was sentenced Friday to the maximum 10 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz said Hassan Abu-Jihaad, of Phoenix, betrayed his country and endangered his fellow sailors.

“I cannot really overstate the seriousness of this crime,” Kravitz said. The leak “does constitute a fundamental betrayal of your country and of your oath. You endangered your colleagues, you endangered your vessel and other vessels and other sailors, and you endangered your country.”

Abu-Jihaad, 33, was convicted last year of disclosing classified national defense information. Prosecutors labeled him a traitor who was trying to help foreign terrorists replicate the bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors.

Abu-Jihaad, an American who is formerly known as Paul Hall and whose chosen Muslim name means “father of jihad,” was a signalman aboard the USS Benfold who was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2002.

He was accused of posting information to a Web site in London that openly espoused violent jihad against the U.S. The information included the makeup of his Navy battle group and a drawing of the formation the group would use to pass through the dangerous Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in April 2001.  Complete Story: