A husband and wife from King Salmon pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to making false statements about a terrorist investigation. Theirs is the first domestic terrorism case in Alaska history.
The investigation began with Paul Gene Rockwood Jr., who kept a list of 15 people he intended to assassinate. In April of this year, Paul gave the list to his wife, Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, who traveled to Anchorage in order to deliver it to another individual.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force subsequently obtained the list and on May 19 questioned the husband and wife about it. Both Nadia and Paul Rockwood made false statements regarding their actions related to the target list.
Nadia Rockwood claimed that, while in Anchorage, "she had (instead) delivered a book or a common letter to another person," according to a Department of Justice press release. Her husband claimed that he never created the list and had no knowledge of its existence.
Wednesday morning, Paul Rockwood plead guilty to "one count of willfully making false statements to the FBI," according to the same press release. If Judge Ralph Beistline accepts his plea, Rockwood will serve eight years in federal prison, which is the maximum for his crime.
Nadia Rockwood, a citizen of both the United States and Britain, pleaded guilty to the same crime as her husband and will spend five years on probation with the option of serving her sentence in Britain if her plea is accepted.
Both sentencing hearings will be held Aug. 23.
According to the Department of Justice press release, Paul Rockwood converted to Islam in late 2001 or early 2002 while living in Virginia and, before moving to King Salmon in 2006 "became a strict adherent to the violent jihad-promoting ideology of cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki," whom the FBI considers a "senior recruiter for Al-Qaeda."
The Anchorage Daily News reports that while living in King Salmon, Paul Rockwood worked for the National Weather Service as a meteorological technician.
In 2009, while still residing in King Salmon, Paul Rockwood began looking into how to kill his targets. The Department of Justice press release states that targets on his list all lived outside Alaska. Paul Rockwood researched explosives and contacted others about "committing acts of domestic terrorism, including the possibility of using mail bombs or killing targets by gunshot to the head," according to the release.
Paul Rockwood finalized the hit list by early 2010.
Contact Andrew Rubenstein at andrew(at)alaskadispatch.com.