Posted on 10/01/2003 9:32:41 AM PDT by swarthyguy
SALEM - He was the quiet, well-groomed man in the suit, who kept to himself in this neighborhood nestled at the edge of a bustling college, where almost everybody seemed to be from somewhere else and nobody stood out.
But yesterday, a different Ahmed Fathy Mehalba was on display, this time in a federal court, where he appeared in jeans and an orange golf shirt, accused of possessing classified information he allegedly acquired at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he worked as a civilian translator.
Just what route the Egyptian-born Mehalba, 31, took after his days in Salem has those who came across him scratching their heads.
"This is a shock for us," said Mary Ortins, whose husband, Domingos, owns one of the buildings Mehalba lived in.
Mehalba moved to 24 Forest Ave. in 1994, and stayed there until 1999, city records show. Then, he moved to 19 Williams St. Neighbors there said the last time they saw him was more than a year ago. They said his wife, who no longer lives there, told them Mehalba, a naturalized American citizen, was in the U.S. Army.
Police Detective Sgt. Michael Andreas, the department's anti-terrorism officer, said he knew Mehalba was living in Salem in 2001.
"I can say I was aware of him then," he said. "But because of this (new) investigation, I can't say why."
On Monday, Mehalba resurfaced at Logan Airport, arriving on Alitalia Flight 618, from Cairo, Egypt, after making a stop in Italy. He carried a black garment bag with U.S. Army insignia and another backpack. Agents with Customs and Border Protection noticed he had a military identification card. Checking his bags, they found 132 compact discs. At least one contained unspecified classified information. A document on the disc was labled "SECRET." Mehalba denied the discs were his and said he went to Egypt to visit his father, according to an affidavit attached to the government's complaint.
If convicted of the charge of making false statements, he could spend up to five years in prison and pay a fine of up to $250,000. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday; his lawyer said Mehalba will "vigorously defend" himself against the charge.
With the arrest, Mehalba became the third person to work closely with suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters at Guantanamo Bay to fall under suspicion. The news drew media from across the country to Salem.
Diamond consultant, cabbie, father
"I've had a few people here today," said Raymond Pinkham, who moved to the Forest Avenue home after Mehalba left. There are no other tenants right now. "I have no idea who this guy is," he said.
Ortins, the wife of Mehalba's Forest Avenue landlord, said her tenant never caused any problems. After the husband of a former tenant, Caroline Brien, moved out, Mehalba moved in with her.
"We saw this guy over there and we questioned her as to who he was," Ortins said. "She said he was her boyfriend."
The two married in 1994. They have a daughter, Tara, who is now 9 years old. Mehalba kept to himself, Ortins said. After a cooking fire forced the landlord to renovate the apartment, the couple moved out. Mehalba's name was never on the lease.
"They paid their rent with checks and none of them had his name on them," Ortins said. Court records show financial trouble led Mehalba to file for bankruptcy in 1997, on his 25th birthday.
Ortins said her husband did see Mehalba again -- at the Northshore Mall -- only a few weeks ago. They did not talk.
While he was arrested yesterday, Mehalba said he was working as a contractor for the U.S. government. But in Salem, he had a very different job. He called himself a diamond consultant and dressed smartly. At some point, however, he stopped wearing suits and started driving a cab that could be seen parked outside the apartment on Forest Avenue, which looks out over the sprawling parking lot for Salem State College's O'Keefe Center.
"It's easy to blend in here," Stefanie Julien, a neighbor, said. "You wouldn't stand out in this neighborhood."
Raymond Julien said he had almost forgotten Mehalba until reporters started asking around the neighborhood yesterday. He found it hard to reconcile the changes in his neighborhood, where he lives in the house in which he grew up and never locked the front door until he was 16. Still, he said, he is keeping an open mind about Mehalba's arrest.
"I hope he doesn't get crucified in the media -- if he's innocent," Julien said. "There's always two sides to a coin."
Path from Salem leads to U.S. Army, Boston cab
Mehalba enlisted in the U.S. Army in May 2000. As a private first class, he was based at Fort Benning, Ga. He tried twice to make the cut to become a military intelligence interrogator, but failed both times.
While in the Army, Mehalba befriended U.S. Army Specialist Deborah M. Gephart, a student at the Counter-Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, according to FBI reports. She was arrested for stealing a car, but officials found a stolen laptop and classified counter-intelligence training material in her room.
An FBI report showed Mehalba had developed a close relationship with Gephart while training together, and that Mehalba told her his uncle was an intelligence officer for the Egyptian army.
According to court documents, Mehelba admitted to the agents that Gephart was his girlfriend and said she had been arrested for stealing a car, but that he didn't know anyone who had mishandled classified information or got into trouble for breaching security.
In May 2001, he left the Army with an unspecified medical discharge.
Following his stint in the armed forces, Mehalba drove a cab in Boston. Two days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Mehalba approached Massport, the agency that runs Logan Airport, and applied for a job as a gate guard, Massport spokesman Jose Juves said. Logan was the starting point for two of the doomed U.S. airliners that were hijacked by al Qaeda terrorists and crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.
Gate guards monitor traffic going in and out of the airport. Mehalba was never considered for the job because Massport wasn't hiring, and he received a form letter telling him or his rejection, Juves said.
Mehalba was back living in Salem sometime in 2001, according to Salem police. He also gave Methuen as a home address when applying for the Massport job.
Less than a year ago, he was hired by the Titan Corp, a defense contractor based in San Diego, Calif., to serve as an Arabic translator at the military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center for suspected al Qaeda and Iraqi enemy operatives.
In July, he went on leave from Titan, which has had a contract to supply Arabic linguists to U.S. forces in Guantanamo since December 2002, according to company spokesman Wil Williams.
After that, Mehalba apparently went back to cab driving, picking up two violations at Logan - one for operating a cab without a hack's license in May 2002, and one for failing to report to the "designated cab pool area" in March 2003, according to Juves.
Aren't they all. If I was a a jihadi, I'd throw wild parties to throw LE off the scent.
Al-Qeada traffics in diamonds.
Police Detective Sgt. Michael Andreas, the department's anti-terrorism officer, said he knew Mehalba was living in Salem in 2001.
"I can say I was aware of him then," he said. "But because of this (new) investigation, I can't say why."
Miss Marple~~~ Remember that scam with the diamond stalls at all those malls a year or so ago......I wonder if he is tied into that.
Yup, they use that hawwala system to transfer funds under the radar.
Remember that Jewish jeweler in Manhattan that was arrested with a couple of ME types a few weeks ago?
While in the Army, Mehalba befriended U.S. Army Specialist Deborah M. Gephart, a student at the Counter-Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, according to FBI reports. She was arrested for stealing a car, but officials found a stolen laptop and classified counter-intelligence training material in her room.An FBI report showed Mehalba had developed a close relationship with Gephart while training together, and that Mehalba told her his uncle was an intelligence officer for the Egyptian army.
According to court documents, Mehelba admitted to the agents that Gephart was his girlfriend and said she had been arrested for stealing a car, but that he didn't know anyone who had mishandled classified information or got into trouble for breaching security.
Hey, sounds like a story behind that.
In terms of mosques, deep cover guys, sanctified by jihad, do not have to go to mosques, etc.
The greater jihad outweighs the mundane duties.
Wonder if he hung out at the Golden Banana?
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Or, maybe the FBI found him.MEHALBA's profile is no longer available.
Another success? Maybe... MEHALBA may have found that special someone!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
