After the conviction, trials just beginning

Third of five parts

She tells of a Web site that featured pictures of Osama bin Laden and a burning American flag.

She explains how an American National Guardsman she'd met on that site wanted to give over U.S. tank secrets to al-Qaeda.

And when her nearly full day on the witness stand is done, Shannen Rossmiller has demonstrated to a court-martial jury of nine commissioned officers at Fort Lewis, Wash., how Spec. Ryan Anderson had, in an e-mail correspondence with her, pushed to get a terrorist to hear his plan, and to effect his betrayal.

Acting on Rossmiller's information, authorities arranged a sting that was recorded on hidden video. Anderson says to people he believes to be al-Qaeda operatives: "It would be very easy to kill a [tank] driver, or the crew inside."

After deliberating 41/2 hours, the jury finds Anderson guilty of five counts of trying to help al-Qaeda. He will be going to prison for life. Rossmiller has known this day was coming, but the severity of the verdict is still a shock.

Anderson's wife and mother weep in the courtroom. Sitting just a few feet away, Rossmiller watches the women break down, and sees Anderson's father, Bruce, put his hand on his daughter-in-law Erin's back to try to comfort her.

Then Rossmiller starts sobbing herself.

My God, she thinks, what have I done? He's a man, not just some ghost on the Internet, she realizes. People love him. And I've ruined the lives of all of them. They have every reason to hate me.

Her brain is on fire, her stomach churns.

But what if I'd left him alone? Wouldn't American soldiers have died?

Rossmiller returns to her hotel room and throws up.

Having ensnared Anderson in an exchange of 30 e-mail messages over four months, Rossmiller is seeing firsthand the reach and power of her late-night cybersleuthing.

It should be a day for champagne. But Rossmiller is reeling. And the bad news continues.

"The newspapers and TV stations started calling at 1:03 this afternoon," Randy informs his wife. "I happened to look at the clock."

By the end of the day, 45 news organizations have called. And about 45 more will ring in the next day.

Rossmiller is enraged.