Paul Rockwood and his wife accused of domestic terrorism

Paul Rockwood Jr. and his wife, Nadia Rockwood, pleaded guilty on the domestic terrorism plot accusation and on lying about the existence of a hit list of possible targets.

The Alaska couple of King Salmon were charged with lying about the list which apparently had about 15 targets and making false declarations regarding domestic terrorism when they were interviewed in May by the FBI agents. United States District Judge Ralph Beistline ruled that Paul Rockwood would be imprisoned for eight years, and his five months pregnant wife, Nadia Rockwood, would get five years probation in her country of origin, the United Kingdom. It seems that that Paul Rockwood, also known as “Bilal” changed Christian religion for Islam about ten years ago and started studying the teachings of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American born cleric that declared jihad against the United States and supports acts of terrorism.

After his conversion to Islam Rockwood became a supporter of the violent Jihad ideology promoted by Anwar al-Awlaki and considered that it was his religious responsibility to punish anyone who disconsidered Islam by killing them. The Federal authorities found out that he started selecting possible targets for the future execution he was going to perform by visiting websites, and moved from Virginia, where he was living 10 years ago, to Alaska so that he would be able to study explosive components, triggering devices and bombs. Authorities also found out that he was planning on using mail bombs and started talking about killing his targets by gunshot to the head.