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When authorities detained Abdo at a Killeen motel July 27, they found bomb-making components, a loaded gun, 143 rounds of ammunition, a stun gun and magazine article on how to make an explosive device. In a recorded police interview, Abdo said he was planning an attack in the Fort Hood area "because I don't appreciate what my unit did in Afghanistan." He told authorities he planned to put the bomb in a busy restaurant filled with soldiers, wait outside and shoot anyone who survived
-- and become a martyr after police killed him. Abdo told an investigator that he didn't plan an attack inside Fort Hood because he didn't believe he would be able to get through security at the gates, according to testimony. During the four-day trial, a recorded jail conversation was played for jurors in which Abdo told his mother his religion inspired his actions and he was seeking "justice" for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. "Their suffering is my suffering," he said. Abdo became a Muslim when he was 17. He enlisted in the military in 2009, thinking that the service wouldn't conflict with his religious beliefs. But according to his essay that was part of his conscientious objector status application, Abdo reconsidered as he explored Islam further. That status was put on hold after he was charged with possessing child pornography
-- about two months before he went AWOL.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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