AWOL soldier Nasser Jason Abdo arrested for plotting attack on Fort Hood army base

An AWOL U.S. serviceman was busted with bomb-making materials near Fort Hood and may have been plotting another attack at the base, authorities said Thursday.

Pfc. Nasser Jason Abdo faces federal charges after the FBI recovered guns and "bomb-making components, including gunpowder" in his hotel room near the base.

Abdo, a practicing Muslim from Texas who had been fighting for conscientious objector status, had disappeared from Fort Campbell, Ky., where he faced child po charges.

The 21-year-old raised suspicions when he went into the same gun store near the base where Maj. Nidal Hassan bought the arsenal he used to kill 13 soldiers in 2009.

Store owners contacted authorities after Abdo asked about 40-caliber bullets and then bought three boxes of 12-gauge shotgun shells and a magazine for a pistol, CNN reported.

Abdo paid cash and left in a cab, and then went to a surplus store where he allegedly bought a military uniform with Fort Hood patches.

He was arrested by the Killeen Police Department and the case was quickly tued over to the FBI.

Federal agents later searched Abdo's hotel room and found gunpowder, shotgun shells, a pressure cooker, 18 pounds of sugar, four magazines and ammunition, CNN reported.

While being questioned, Abdo allegedly admitted he was planning some sort of attack at the base because he wanted to "get even," ABCNews reported.

Abdo disappeared from Fort Campbell on July 4 while awaiting a discharge as a conscientious objector.

He had filed for the status last year on the eve of his deployment to Afghanistan. It was originally rejected but later approved by a review board this spring.

The military could not immediately discharge him because he faced a court-martial for allegedly having child poography on his military computer.

Lawyer James Branum, who represented Abdo on his conscientious objector application and on the po charges, said he was stunned by the terrorism arrest.

"I'm not sure what to think about this," Branum told the Daily News. "I have not been in touch with him for quite a while."

Fort Hood was the scene of a terrorist shooting attack in November 2009, when Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 30.

Hasan, 40, was shot and paralyzed in the attack. He was arraigned on July 20 and is awaiting a military trial.