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US Army Veteran Allegedly Joined Al Qaeda, Charged With Using “Weapon of Mass Destruction” (+video)

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U.S. Army veteran Eric Harroun of Phoenix has been charged with conspiring with an al Qaeda group to wage war against the Syrian regime. Harroun, 30, was charged Thursday in federal court in northern Virginia with plotting to use a rocket-propelled grenade – considered a weapon of mass destruction – outside the U.S., an offense which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to the Justice Department.

MailOnline has previously reported that Harroun has been engaged in military action in Syria, fighting alongside rebel forces against the Syrian government.

The FBI began investigating Harroun after videos and photos were posted online of him fighting in Syria, posing with weapons and boasting of killing members of the Syrian regime. In one post, he claims credit for downing a Syrian helicopter.

Prosecutors say Harroun has also been fighting with the al-Nusrah Front, which is commonly known as al Qaeda in Iraq. According to the State Department, al-Nusrah has claimed responsibility for roughly 600 terrorist attacks in Syria.

Harroun returned to the U.S. on Wednesday after several interviews with FBI investigators in Turkey, where they grilled him about his dealings with al-Nusrah, according to a nine-page criminal complaint.

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Obama plans military intervention in Syria to seize Assad’s chemical weapons

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The Pentagon has made contingency plans to send small teams of special operations troops into Syria if the White House decides it needs to secure chemical weapons depots now controlled by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, senior U.S. officials said.

President Obama warned this week that any effort by Assad to move or use his arsenal of chemical munitions in the country’s conflict would cross a “red line,” implying it could prompt swift U.S. intervention.

But Pentagon planners are more focused on protecting or destroying any Syrian stockpiles that are left unguarded and at risk falling into the hands of rebel fighters or militias aligned with Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or other militant groups.

Securing the sites would probably involve stealthy raids by special operations teams trained to handle such weapons, and precision airstrikes to incinerate the chemicals without dispersing them in the air, the officials said. U.S. satellites and drone aircraft already maintain partial surveillance of the sites.

U.S. intelligence agencies believe Syria has over the years produced or acquired hundreds of tons of sarin nerve agent and mustard gas, a blister agent, and has sought to develop VX, another powerful nerve gas. The toxicity of some chemical agents degrades significantly over time, so it is unclear how lethal the stockpiles are.

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