Suspect in Arkansas terrorist case admits to the shooting

Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, aka Carlos Bledsoe, 23, the suspect arrested in the terrorist killing of an Army recruiter in Little Rock this week, admits to the shootings, according to Suspect’s Lawyer Outlines Defense in Killing of Soldier by James Dao New York Times 06/04/09.

His defense strategy doesn't sound that promising to me, though I'm sure his attorney knows more about it than I do. Dao reports:

Mr. [James] Hensley [the defense attorney] said Mr. Muhammad was in Yemen to teach English at a camp for Afghan refugees, a position he said Mr. Muhammad got through a college exchange program in Nashville. While there, he married a Yemeni woman, whose name the lawyer did not know. Mr. Muhammad also met children who had lost limbs in the war and women who asserted that they had been raped by American troops.

Mr. Hensley suggested that the camp made Mr. Muhammad more susceptible to the influence of Islamic militants in prison, where, he says, Mr. Muhammad was tortured. Asked if Mr. Muhammad had stayed in contact with any militants, Mr. Hensley said that he did not know but that it was highly unlikely.

Yemen officially denies that Muhammad was tortured there.

His attorney's statement would lead us to believe that Muhammad's motivation for the attack to which he now admits was Islamist conviction, i.e., a violent version of politicized Islam.

Tags: abdulhakim mujahid muhammad,, terrorism