Opinion ID: 181375
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Abu-Jihaad's Access to the Disclosed Information and Ties to Azzam

Text: That Abu-Jihaad was the insider who transmitted classified information about the Constellation battlegroup's transit plan was established, in part, by evidence of his opportunity and motive to do so. Abu-Jihaad does not seriously dispute that, as a signalman with a secret-level security clearance, he had access to the transit plan and, thus, the opportunity to transmit it to an unauthorized person. See United States v. Abu-Jihaad, 600 F.Supp.2d at 377 (referencing evidence that Abu-Jihaad regularly worked on the bridge where . . . the ship's paper charts and classified transit plans were stored). Nor does he dispute that he frequently communicated with Azzam, the unauthorized recipient of the classified information in 2001, or that the contents of his communications revealed a motive to transmit classified information, i.e., his support for jihad, even when directed against his own country. Instead, Abu-Jihaad submits that any inference that he transmitted classified information to Azzam was undermined by his open display of jihadist sympathies in the Navy, as evidenced by his sharing Azzam videos with shipmates and his use of a Navy-monitored email account to communicate with Azzam. While Abu-Jihaad was free to make this argument to the jury, it was hardly compelled to accept it and to return a verdict of not guilty. The jury could have determined that if Abu-Jihaad used his military account to convey national defense information, he did so prior to the battlegroup's March 15, 2001 deployment and, thus, at a time when his Navy email was not being monitored. Alternatively, the jury could have found that Abu-Jihaad likely used his personal email account to transmit classified information. That, after all, was the account he used to send his Cole email to Azzam praising the murderous bombing of a Navy ship as a martyrdom operation. See Gov't Ex. 19. In urging otherwise, Abu-Jihaad observes that in the Cole email, sent in July 2001, he introduced himself as a United States sailor, an unnecessary action if he had previously disclosed military intelligence to Azzam. The Cole email, however, was sent to an Azzam email account specifically designated for the general public to send emails of support. A rational jury might well have concluded that Abu-Jihaad sent the classified information to a different Azzam email address, with or without introducing himself. In sum, even if the email evidence could have supported inferences more favorable to Abu-Jihaad, it was nevertheless sufficient to support a reasonable inference that Abu-Jihaad was the only person shown to have had both the opportunity and motive to transmit the classified transit plan information to Azzam. See United States v. Burden, 600 F.3d at 226 (reiterating established rule that it is for jury to choose among competing inferences supported by evidence).