AWOL soldier with ‘bomb-making materials’ arrested near Ft. Hood

This story has been corrected. See below.

Ft. Hood officials said a soldier not assigned to the base was arrested Wednesday by officials with the nearby Killeen, Texas, police department.

The man was identified by police as Naser Jason Abdo.

Abdo is expected to face federal charges Thursday after he was discovered in a hotel room with “bomb-making materials,” a local FBI agent told Reuters.

“Whatever threat Mr. Nassar posed yesterday has been eliminated and mitigated, and there was nothing to indicate he was acting with anyone else,” said Eric Vasys, FBI special agent in San Antonio.

Abdo allegedly went AWOL on July 4 from Ft. Campbell in Kentucky.

He filed as a conscientious objector, Army officials said, and they recommended he be court-martialed. Child pornography was allegedly found in his possession.

Ft. Hood, which is near Killeen, was the scene of a deadly shooting by an Army psychiatrist in 2009.

“We are aware at this time that Killeen Police Department arrested a Soldier yesterday. The incident leading to the arrest did not occur on Fort Hood and the Soldier was not a Fort Hood based Soldier,” Ft. Hood officials said in a statement, which directed inquiries to the Killeen Police Department.

“At this time, there has been no incident at Fort Hood,” the statement said. “We continue our diligence in keeping our force protection at appropriate levels.”

[For the record: An earlier version of this story incorrectly gave the name of the man arrested as Jason Abdo Nassar.]