1999 Yearbook photo.
Posted on 09/24/2003 4:35:23 PM PDT by Shermy
Ahmad I. al-Halabi liked to fiddle with robots in high school. He lived in one of the nation's biggest Arab-American communities, and went straight into the Air Force after graduation. He planned to marry his fiancee days after his tour as an Arabic translator ended on Guantanamo Bay.
But now al-Halabi, a senior airman — once honored as "Airman of the Year" — is in custody at an Air Force base in California, facing allegations of espionage that could bring the death penalty for the 24-year-old son of Syrian immigrants.
The supply clerk-turned-translator is the second member of the U.S. military to be arrested for actions at Guantanamo, the U.S.-run military base in Cuba housing some 660 alleged members of al-Qaida, the Taliban and other terrorism suspects. A Muslim Army chaplain was arrested this month; a third military person is under investigation, authorities said Wednesday.
"I have never made any anti-American or anti-United States statements," al-Halabi told Air Force Special Agent Lance Wega, according to federal documents of the 32 military charges against him.
He also denied having unauthorized contacts with detainees, taking any detainees' letters to his residence, or taking any prohibited pictures at the base's Camp Delta.
A portrait of al-Halabi's personal life is slowly emerging: a typical high school yearbook photo, a trip to Disney World, his engagement to marry a woman in Syria, from where his family emigrated in 1996.
The family settled in Dearborn, Mich., a suburb of Detroit where mosques, Arabic store signs and cafes with thick coffee and Middle Eastern sweets greet the area's Arab Americans. Some 300,000 live in the region. He joined Fordson High School's 10th grade, and the school's robotics club.
Drivers license records indicate the family lived in Dearborn and later moved to Detroit, to a tree-lined street in a working-class neighborhood with an elementary school at the end of the block. Neighbors said they've said hello but never really talked with family members.
"We don't really know them. Every now and then, I see (a woman) coming out dressed head to toe ... with just her eyes showing," said Christina Burton, who lives across the street.
A high school picture from the 1999 yearbook shows a smiling al-Halabi, video camera in hand, with club members at Disney World, where they took part in a national robotics competition.
His yearbook portrait shows a clean-cut young man with brushed-back black hair, hints of a mustache and a wide grin.
Al-Halabi went straight into the Air Force after graduating that year, and worked as a supply clerk before being pressed into service as a translator, Maj. James Key III, one of his attorneys, told The Associated Press.
He did well, named Airman of the Year one year and promoted fairly quickly to senior airman, his attorney said. He had served in Kuwait prior to the war in Iraq (news - web sites), and spent nine months at Guantanamo.
Al-Halabi had been engaged to a woman from Syria. Key did not recall her name.
When he was arrested on July 23 as he arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., on a flight from the prison camp, he was holding a plane ticket for Syria, where he planned to marry in Damascus, Key said.
There's also a Syrian connection with Army Capt. Yousef Yee, the arrested chaplain who gave religious guidance to suspected Muslim terrorists on Guantanamo. After attending West Point, Yee spent four years in Syria, studied Arabic, converted to Islam, and reportedly married a Syrian woman. Yee hasn't been charged, but is being held in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., on suspicion of breaching Guantanamo Bay security.
Key said al-Halabi's pending marriage explained the contacts with the Syrian embassy cited in the charges.
Now al-Halabi is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Charges include that he carried two handwritten notes from detainees that he intended to turn over to someone traveling to Syria, and that his personal laptop computer contained classified information about detainees and 180 messages from detainees he intended to send to Syria or Qatar.
One of the allegations is that he conducted "unauthorized communications with detainees" because he brought them baklava pastries.
Now, behind bars, al-Halabi is barred from speaking Arabic and must rely on a translator to speak with his father and his fiance, since both only speak Arabic.
His father, Ibrahim al-Halabi, spoke at the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing in California last week.
"He testified how much Airman al-Halabi loved the United States, how important being in America was to him," Key said. "They're shocked at the allegations he may have done something contrary to the United States' interests."
___
Contributing to this report were AP writers David Goodman and Tarek El-Tablawy in Michigan and Matt Kelley in Washington.
That boy's in syrious (series?) trouble.
Burkha-ed? Not like any Syrians I've met. Sounds Wahhabi.
Sounds as if Al-Halabi either never met his fiancee, or hasn't seen her in years. Arranged marriage? Or a convenient cover for a trip to Syria for intelligence purposes? Or both?
Quite possible--most marriages in Syria and Jordan are arranged.
The Press does it again! Boy, talk about trying to make light of the serious charges, as if all this poor widdle Disney-Land goer did was try to smuggle in some sweets to starving prisoners!
How about puttong in the article about the lists of interrogators, prisoners, base layouts, names of cooperating prisoners and prisoner communications he was smuggling out to send to Syria?
Are they more serious than smuggling baklava pastries?
Perhaps AP is trying to be funny? There is nothing funny at all about this!
Sometimes I wonder if anybody in the Media or Democrat Party takes this war seriously.
2. There is an obvious connection to Syria
3. We have a guy somewhere and I'm guessing Syria and also someone who came to us with a "dot". Syria has been giving us a lot lately if you look back during the past month.
My biggest concerns with the whole Yee thing are the dots that put him in the same place as Atta (Germany, Saudi Arabia, Aleppo, Syria, Jersey and Florida) and his interest in Islam at the beginning of his West Point stint. I could see AFTER his stint in the Gulf War that perhaps he became compassionate towards them. It's one of those "what's wrong with this picture?" things.
I'm concerned that he has been a traitor for a LONG TIME and the association is with Usama which has blossomed to include Iraq. Think there is lots more to come. Bet our guys are super pi**ed having had to bow to these traitors just because they ARE Muslims.
When will Muslims wake up to the fact that they kill people en masse, including their own, for no reason other than directing more power to their leader...just like Hitler.
5.) The press is speculating since it gives them and excuse to give their buddy Schumer a lot of air time.
6.) Schumer may have leaked them info in order to get news coverage for himself. (In which case the military may still be scrambling to nail down cases against the others because he leaked all over an ongoing investigation.)
7.) Schumer just got lucky, and is getting more freebies than Bill Clinton in a roomful of social-climbing interns.
8.) We really need to point out what a bunch of arseholes Syria is and this is as good a way as any to start for those who forgot about Lebanon
9.) ?
(* Is Ft. Bliss, TX where Yee actually converted? Are there other known links to terrorist suppporters in that area of TX?)
1991 late : (YEE IS ALREADY CONVERTED TO ISLAM; HE IS STATIONED IN SAUDI ARABIA) In late 1991, Yee's unit was sent to Saudi Arabia to protect King Abdul Aziz Air Base. By that time, he had converted to Islam. At the time, there were no Muslim chaplains in the military. To become one, Yee needed a doctorate in divinity, but back then, the Army didn't recognize any Islamic seminaries. - "Yee went to Syria to get his degree in divinity," THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via The Olympian, Olympia Washington, Wednesday, September 24, 2003
(*Anyone know anything about Abu Nour?)
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