Posted on 09/24/2003 3:39:33 PM PDT by blam
Spy mystery at Guantanamo Bay as Syria denies link to accused US air force worker
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
25 September 2003
Syria has flatly denied having links with the US Air Force translator at the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention camp, who has been charged with trying to hand secret information about the base to the Damascus government.
In the first public comment of the case, Ahmad al-Hassan, the Syrian Information Minister, called the reports "baseless and illogical" yesterday, adding: "Would the CIA fail to find a translator it trusts and had previously trained for a job of such a level of secrecy?"
Court papers claim 24-year-old Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi tried to pass to Damascus material including hundreds of notes from prisoners, a map of the base in Cuba and details of its air traffic, plus intelligence documents.
The Syrian-born SA Halabi has been charged on more than 30 counts, including four of espionage and three of aiding the enemy. The documents do not make clear to whom, if anyone, the sensitive information was specifically addressed, or whether it reached its destination. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
When he was arrested on July 23, SA Halabi was carrying two handwritten notes from prisoners. The court documents claim he was planning to give them to a person travelling to Syria. His laptop computer also contained 180 messages from some of the 660 al-Qa'ida and Taliban suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. These too he was allegedly intending to send to Syria or to the Gulf state of Qatar.
The court papers submitted by the US military authorities also claim SA Halabi took photographs of the camp, had unauthorised contacts with prisoners - including giving them baklava pastries - and had unauthorised contacts with the Syrian embassy. He is also accused of lying to the Air Force by claiming to have been naturalised a US citizen in 2001.
But all talk of espionage is rejected by SA Halabi's relatives. They agreed he visited the Syrian embassy in Washington, but simply to arrange visits to his native country to move his Syrian-born fiancée to the US. Otherwise, he has no contacts with the government of President Bashar Assad, and has applied for US citizenship, they say.
Whatever the outcome, the case, days after the disclosure of the arrest of a Muslim chaplain at the camp, has shaken the US authorities. It has called into question the security of a remote and supposedly super-safe facility at the heart of President George Bush's "war on terrorism". The episode has raised fears that al-Qa'ida, far from being on the run in the US, may have penetrated the military that is pursuing it.
Almost certainly SA Halabi and the chaplain, US Army Captain James Yee, knew each other. The charges also suggest SA Halabi did not report unauthorised communications between detainees and other military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, raising the possibility of a wider ring. At least two other people are being investigated, CNN reported yesterday.
Whatever the outcome, the affair will cast a further cloud over ties between America and Syria. Although the two countries maintain diplomatic relations, Washington has long accused Syria of being a sponsor of terrorism, in particular of radical groups operating against Israel. America also says Damascus operates secret chemical and biological weapons programmes. Tensions reached a peak immediately after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein when Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, even hinted at military action against Syria.
He suggested Damascus had offered sanctuary to prominent members of the former Iraqi regime, and accused the Assad government of allowing terrorists and weapons across its borders to aid the resistance opposing the American invasion force.
A better job must be done to protect the integrity of the Service.
By the way, his wife has another daughter but this daughter is still in Syria.
Yee also served as a substitute imam at the Islamic Center of Olympia, Washington when its regular imam, Mohamad Joban, was away.
Yes, we are this stupid. We're so tied in knots by political correctness that we'd rather have muslim soldiers fragging our men than risk offending muslims by stating the obvious. Islam is at war with the USA and we can't trust anyone with dual loyalties in our military.
"Would the CIA fail to find a translator it trusts and had previously trained for a job of such a level of secrecy?"
Foreigners watch too many American movies.
Yee would be in a perfect position to be a spymaster, evaluating all other Muslims in his unit for suitability to become agents. He wouldn't even have to stick his neck out, just introduce likely recruits to another Muslim who would handle the recruitment (and would take the heat if the recruitment got blown)
Tied in knots we are. And Chuckie Sheesmer (D-NY) wasted no time in finding a microphone to curse our lack of security. It must be so complicated being Chuckie, he would lead the demonstrations if we excluded Muslims from the military, curse our military if they miss their dual loyalties, all while leading the fight to exclude people of "strong faith" from the judiciary.
Consider this: He may be a CIA mole that is being extracted, huh?
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 25/09/2003)
The Telegraph (UK)
A senior Pentagon commander said yesterday an urgent inquiry had begun into a possible Syrian-linked spy ring among Muslim US military personnel at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Gen Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the arrests already reported - of Guantanamo's US army Muslim chaplain and a US air force Arabic translator - had sparked serious concerns about the maximum security prison camp, which holds 660 suspected al-Qa'eda and Taliban terrorists.
Amid reports that at least two more military personnel are under investigation, Gen Pace said: "We don't presume that the two we know about is all there is to it."
Syria, already accused by Washington of sponsoring terrorism, found itself at the heart of the Guantanamo investigation with the disclosure that the arrested translator, Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, is charged with trying to send classified material to Syria, where he was born, and failing to report contacts with the Syrian embassy.
Gen Pace said: "We will chase these rabbits as far as we need to, to find out where they lead." The Syrian information minister, Ahmed al Hassan, said in Damascus: "How could Syria have a spy in Guantanamo? Any allegations that al-Halabi has any kind of connection with Syria are baseless."
The second man arrested, Capt Yousef Yee, 35, converted to Islam after studying in Syria for four years, and is married to a Syrian.
Airman al-Halabi, 24, from Detroit, is accused of sending Syria details of military flights to and from the Guantanamo Bay base; the names, serial numbers and cell numbers of detainees; a map of the base and other military documents.
One charge hints at a broader conspiracy, accusing him of wrongfully failing to report "unauthorised or attempted communications with detainees by other military members".
Officials said Capt Lee was arrested on Sept 10 with a list of detainees, a list of staff at the prison camp, and a diagram of the facilities.
He is yet to be charged with any offence.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether Capt Yee and Airman al-Halabi had any unauthorised contacts beyond work and their shared Muslim faith.
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