Report: U.S. Soldier Arrested in Possible Second Attack on Ft. Hood

Fox News is reporting that at least one U.S. soldier has been arrested in a possible plot to attack Ft. Hood, which was the target of a deadly attack in 2009.

Fox cites sources who say that one person is in custody, but also notes that there are reports of two others also being apprehended:

According to an Army source, one AWOL soldier is in the custody of the Killeen Police Department near Fort Hood. He was not captured on base. According to another source, two other U.S. soldiers were also arrested earlier today after authorities recovered weapons and explosives.

In an update to its original story, Fox names the suspect as Pfc. Nasser Jason Abdo, and says he was allegedly found with "explosives and jihadist materials:"

Pvt. Nasser Jason Abdo, an AWOL soldier from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was arrested by the Killeen Police Department near Fort Hood and remains in custody there. Authorities, however, will not say if Abdo is the one who raised security concerns. Abdo was allegedly found with explosives and jihadist materials at the time of his arrest, a senior Army source confirms to Fox News. He was arrested Wednesday afternoon after someone called authorities to report a suspicious individual.

A Ft. Hood spokesman told Fox that Abdo was also being investigated for having child pornography on his government computer. He went AWOL on July 4, just a day before his first scheduled deployment to Afghanistan. "The incident leading to the arrest did not occur on Fort Hood and the soldier was not a Fort Hood based soldier," a Ft. Hood spokesman said in a statement. "At this time, there has been no incident at Fort Hood. We continue our diligence in keeping our force protection at appropriate levels." The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed in a statement that a "suspect is in custody" and said, "We are not aware of any further immediate threat to public safety and are actively investigating the matter."

KCEN-TV reports the police were tipped off by a local gun shop owner who became suspicious of Abdo:

Officers say Abdo was overheard making those threatening statements and that after his arrest, he kept making them.

Killeen Police received a call from a gun shop owner about a suspicious man in the store who was asking questions about 40 caliber ammunition and then bought three boxes of 12-gauge ammunition and a magazine for a pistol.

A federal officials said he paid cash, took a cab to a surplus store and bought a military uniform.

After Abdo's arrest, a police searched his motel room and found gunpowder, shotgun shells, 18-pounds of sugar, a pressure cooker, four magazines and ammunition.

A Facebook profile allegedly belonging to Abdo shows that he has been struggling to justify his Islamic faith with his Army duties:

Prayer and reflection have helped me to understand that I cannot be a soldier in the US Army and continue to remain true to Islam as I now understand it.

[...]

US Army Private First Class (PFC) Nasser Abdo is engaged in a struggle against religious discrimination and for freedom of conscience in the US Army. PFC Abdo is seeking a conscientious objector discharge from the military based on his religious beliefs as a Muslim. His unit has now backed down from attempting to force PFC Abdo to deploy. We are urging all people of conscience around the world to stand in solidarity with Nasser Abdo.

However, the profile appears to be part Abdo's campaign to gain consciousness objecter status.

On Nov. 5, 2009, Maj. Nidal Hasan, an American Army officer and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 30 others after going on a shooting spree at Ft. Hood.

It was announced last month that he could face the death penalty.

This is a breaking story. Stay tuned for updates.