http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/52270.html
Green Beret now under arrest claims life of secret intrigue
Was a decorated Broward soldier with the Special Forces trying to smuggle weapons out of Afghanistan or just doing his job?
The Taliban of Afghanistan. Pirates off Somalia. Neo-Nazis in West Virginia.
They all figure into the story of David Kellerman, a Green Beret from Fort Lauderdale accused of trying to smuggle high-powered weapons, ammunition and explosives out of Afghanistan and stockpiling more of them in Broward County.
With a trial scheduled for May, the case may turn on whether jurors believe that Kellerman, 44, a decorated soldier with the U.S. Army Special Forces and a federal air marshal, was handling those weapons for the U.S. government or setting up his own business as a security contractor.
''Is he a turncoat?'' said his attorney Daniel Koleos.
``They think that he was going to do his own private military contracting, that he was stockpiling the stuff.''
Trading his fatigues for olive green prison garb, Kellerman has been held at the federal detention center in downtown Miami since his arrest last October.
Before that, Kellerman lived a busy, cinematic life of top-secret missions and high-seas adventures.
He said he went to work for the FBI with orders to infiltrate the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group, in 2000 and relay intelligence. The group's founder wrote a book that is widely believed to have inspired the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said she couldn't comment on Kellerman's claim.
YEARS OF SERVICE
At that point, Kellerman had about 20 years of military service, including time as a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army Special Forces, and was running his own security firms, Special Ops Associates and Maritime Security. He says his training helped ocean researchers from the University of Miami and other schools fend off a pirate attack off Somalia in 2001.
Koleos said some of the weapons and explosives seized from Kellerman last year had been collected to gain credibility with the National Alliance -- to show the group he was able to get them. National Alliance Chairman Erich Gliebe confirmed that Kellerman is a former member.
Prosecutor Michael Walleisa wouldn't discuss the case, but he filed a motion March 14 to prohibit Kellerman from disclosing any classified information during the upcoming trial in May.
The government contends in the indictment that Kellerman tried to steal weapons, explosives, and ammunition from the U.S. military during his time in Afghanistan. Some of the ammunition seized from Kellerman had been shipped to air marshals between May and November 2002. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, Alicia Valle, wouldn't elaborate on the charges or prosecutors' court strategy.
But after meeting with prosecutors, Koleos said the government believes that Kellerman was planning to seek out work for himself as a private security contractor in Afghanistan.
Koleos said Kellerman was authorized to possess some of the weapons for his work with the government.
The indictment contends that he didn't register some of them under his name, as required by law.
Kellerman said he joined the Federal Air Marshal Service after 9/11, compelled by the terrorist attacks to return to active duty, he said.
He became an arms instructor and worked undercover aboard civilian airplanes. Two years later, he was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Army Special Forces Command.
There, he served in a group of elite soldiers who ''only truly found their
métier after 9/11, when they started being called up for duty on an almost permanent basis,'' Atlantic Monthly correspondent Robert Kaplan wrote in his book
Imperial Grunts, an on-the-ground account of the American military overseas. Kaplan spent the fall of 2003 with Kellerman's unit.
'Basically, we were rounding up remnants of the Taliban, terrorist cells, and what they call `anti-coalition militants,' '' Kellerman told The Miami Herald, describing the latter as al Qaeda forces and insurgents.
''We were trying to find as many bad guys over there as possible,'' he said. ``We gathered intelligence on the enemy and went out to catch them.''
The men grew bushy beards and didn't wear helmets so they would better blend in among the local people and gain respect, Kellerman said. The facial hair gave the group a reputation as cowboys, but they carried out stealth-like missions against the enemy.
It was a job for tough guys, but in the book, Kaplan recalls a tender moment when Kellerman boasted about his son David Jr.'s military accomplishments.
''His 19-year-old son had recently been awarded a Bronze Star for valor in Iraq, for taking out a machine gun nest while serving with the Third Infantry Division,'' Kaplan wrote. 'He recited the citation to me by heart almost. `I was so proud, chills still go up my spine,' he said. 'What more could a father ever want of a son?' ''
The younger Kellerman, now 23, is serving with the Special Forces in Fort Bragg, N.C., according to a military spokesman.
DECORATED SOLDIER
The senior Kellerman, who had joined the Army after getting a GED instead of finishing at Boca Raton High School, was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal in 2004, records show.
He left Afghanistan later that year and was deployed again in 2005, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Army Special Forces Command.
Kellerman said he worked as a combat advisor in the northern part of the country, in Kabul and Mazari-Sharif, with the Afghan National Army.
The next year, inspectors at Bagram Air Base discovered some contraband in his luggage: about 33 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives, several automatic weapons, a shotgun, grenades. The items were found inside a DVD/VHS player, a computer bag and U.S. Army portable-food bags.
Kellerman told Army investigators that he had taken the weapons apart as an experiment to see how easily they could be packed into hiding places like the DVD player -- part of his civilian job as an air marshal. He said he didn't intend to bring them back to the United States.
The indictment also alleges that he conspired with Shawn Patrick Monaghan, a fellow Special Forces soldier, to steal explosives and ammunition from the U.S. government last year and hide them in Afghanistan for his own use later.
Kevin Podlaski, an Indiana attorney who has represented Monaghan in the past, said Monaghan was shocked by the charges. Podlaski said Sgt. 1st Class Monaghan, of Milwaukee, is outside the country but couldn't say where.
As of late last week, Monaghan had not yet been arrested, a U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman said.
The discovery at Bagram prompted investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to look at Kellerman's property back home.
ARMS CACHES
In storage spaces in Deerfield Beach and Dania Beach, they found 20 feet of military detonator cord, smoke grenades, 16,500 rounds of .357-caliber ammunition bearing a U.S. government seal, and what appeared to be a twin-barrel aircraft machine gun.
Moving on to Kellerman's yacht -- named R/V 18 Bravo, the military code for a Special Forces weapons sergeant -- they found more weapons and explosives. He lived aboard the 52-foot vessel, which was docked behind a Fort Lauderdale apartment complex.
On Oct. 13, Kellerman was charged with unlawful possession of firearms and other weapons-related offenses.
If he is convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 on each of the 14 counts.
Koleos says some of the weapons were part of Kellerman's regular combat gear. Others were merely souvenirs.