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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force translator who worked at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects will face a court-martial on charges of spying and aiding the enemy but will not be sentenced to death if convicted, the Air Force said on Friday. Reuters Photo   The general who ordered the espionage trial for senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi of Detroit, Michigan, "did not refer the case as a capital case," the Air force said in a statement. Capital cases may carry the death penalty. Al Halabi, 23, is being held at Vandenberg Air...

<p>WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) &#8212; An interpreter at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, who was arrested last month carrying classified documents, had government clearance to access the information, his attorney said in court yesterday.</p> <p>But federal prosecutors, while acknowledging Ahmed Fathy Mehalba was cleared to see classified documents, said he was forbidden to transport any information.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP)--An Air Force officer has made a secret recommendation of what charges should be pursued against a translator accused of espionage at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terrorist suspects, the translator's lawyer said Tuesday. The report from Col. Anne Burman suggests to Air Force officials which of the 32 charges against Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi should go to trial. Air Force generals will decide whether al-Halabi will face a court-martial on the espionage and other charges--and whether military prosecutors can seek the death penalty if al-Halabi is convicted of the most serious counts. Burman's entire report is...

<p>The Muslim organizations that certify chaplains for the U.S. military have come under renewed scrutiny since the arrest of Army Chaplain Yousef Yee and two Muslim translators who worked with al Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo Bay — and that's all to the good. The Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences (GSISS) and the American Muslim Foundation (AMF) were already being investigated, and it may well be that somehow Mr. Yee picked up his radical Islam from some contact with these groups. But so far another possibility has been overlooked, perhaps because its political incorrectness quotient is positively off the scale: The possibility that Yee was sincere when he denounced the September 11 attacks, and that his mind was changed by the Guantanamo prisoners themselves.</p>

ASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — American interpreters at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who are under suspicion of espionage may have sabotaged interviews with detainees by inaccurately translating interrogators' questions and prisoners' answers, senior American officials said on Monday.It is unclear in how many cases, if any, this may have happened, the officials said. But military investigators are taking the issue seriously enough to review taped interrogations involving the Arabic-language interpreters under scrutiny to spot-check their accuracy.If the investigators' worst fears are realized, officials said, scores of interviews with suspected Qaeda or Taliban prisoners at the Cuban detention center...

THE news last week that two Muslim military personnel, James Yee and Ahmad al-Halabi, had been arrested on suspicion of aiding Al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantnamo Bay (with another three Muslim servicemen under watch) seemed to prompt much surprise. It should not have. It has been obvious for months that Islamists who despise America have penetrated U.S. prisons, law enforcement, and armed forces. In February, a milestone Wall Street Journal article established that imams who consider Osama bin Laden "a hero of Allah" dominate the Islamic chaplaincy in the New York state prison system. In March, I documented the case of...

WASHINGTON -- The spying charge against an Air Force translator at the terrorist detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, underscores the U.S. government's shortage of Arabic language specialists at a time when the war on terrorism demands their skills.To offset the shortage of U.S.-trained Arabic translators, U.S. intelligence officials were relying on Syria-born airman Ahmad al-Halabi to carry out sensitive assignments involving the terrorism suspects.Al-Halabi, 24, who emigrated from Syria to Dearborn, Mich., in 1996 and joined the Air Force after high school graduation in 1999, faces 32 military charges, including some that could involve the death penalty, for alleged...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The probe into alleged spying by U.S. troops assigned to a high-security camp in Cuba that houses al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners now includes two new suspects, Pentagon and FBI officials said Thursday.</p> <p>Navy and Air Force investigators are closely watching a Navy cook and an airman who once were assigned to Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Neither has been detained or charged, military officials said, but their activities raised suspicion among investigators in the wake of the recent arrests of a senior airman and an Army chaplain who had contact with detainees at the camp.</p>

<p>September 26, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - The Air Force translator accused of espionage at the terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was likely working for Islamic extremists connected to al Qaeda, The Post has learned. U.S. officials said yesterday that investigators have traced e-mail communications from senior airman Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian-born translator from Detroit, to a handful of "individuals" in Syria, including one man - whom they would not identify - suspected of ties to Osama bin Laden's terror network.</p>

The Air Force translator charged with spying at the U.S. military's prison camp for terrorists was under investigation even before he arrived at Guantanamo Bay, court records show. Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, 24, who was born in Syria, had been under scrutiny since November 2002, apparently days before he began an assignment as a translator at the prison camp for some of the world's worst terrorists. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations began investigating al-Halabi "based on reports of suspicious activity while he was stationed at Travis Air Force Base and while deployed to Kuwait and Guantanamo Bay," a...

<p>The Pentagon yesterday ordered a review of how it recruits military chaplains, particularly Muslim clerics endorsed by two groups with ties to radical Islam.</p> <p>Pentagon officials yesterday informed senators of the review as Sens. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, and Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, announced upcoming hearings on whether the radical Wahhabi sect has infiltrated the U.S. military chaplain corps.</p>

Damascus expressed its surprise yesterday on the Pentagon's arrest of an American soldier of Syrian origin who worked in the prison of Guantanamo, based on charges of espionage for Syria and leaking classified information. Syria's Minister of Information Ahmad Al Hassan said that this accusation against Ahmad Al Halabi is "baseless." He wondered how a person could be appointed for a total secrecy job and then be discovered as working for another party? "This doesn't make sense," he said. The arrest of Al Halabi, who is an Air Force translator who worked in Guantanamo, was simultaneous to the arrest of...

The group that vetted accused terrorist spy James "Yousef" Yee to serve as a US military chaplain isn't talking to reporters. Meanwhile, news of the arrest of a second US serviceman who dealt with al Qaeda detainees at the US naval base in Guantanamo has people asking just how deeply the terrorist enemy has penetrated the United States armed forces. Response from the Wahhabi Lobby so far is typical: a combination of (1) hiding from reporters, (2) complaining that the alleged spies were being picked on because they are Muslim, and (3) changing the subject. The American Muslim Armed Forces...

UNDER GUARD AT GUANTANAMO Gitmo GIs converting to Islam? Algerian lawmaker claims prisoners influencing U.S. security personnel Posted: September 25, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com In the wake of the arrest of two U.S. Muslim troops at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp on espionage charges, an Algerian lawmaker is claiming the terror-related detainees at the facility have convinced several of their guards to convert to Islam. Hassan Aribi says eight Algerian arrestees whose freedom he negotiated told him of the development, reports Islam Online. "They told me that the American guards were very sympathetic with them to the...

WASHINGTON - An investigation into possible security breaches at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terror suspects has expanded to a third member of the military, Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said Wednesday. The arrests of an Air Force translator and a Muslim Army chaplain — both worked at the Cuban base and have apparent ties to Syria — have shaken Defense Department officials. About 660 suspected Taliban or al-Qaida members are being held at the high-security base. "We don't presume that the two we know about is all there is to it," Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of...

The accused allegedly mailed documents to his home base. Inside the box, agents with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations found 60 pages of documents, including some classified as "Secret," as well as another document typed in Arabic, according to search warrant information obtained by The Bee after the Pentagon revealed al-Halabi had been charged with espionage. ... In addition, he is accused of illegally possessing secret documents on military movements in and out of Guantánamo and classified information on cellblocks housing alleged terrorists. Al-Halabi also is charged with lying to U.S. officials about his citizenship, allegedly claiming he...

<p>September 25, 2003 -- Less than a week after Army Chaplain Capt. James J. Yee was detained on suspicion of espionage, a second U.S. serviceman stationed at the Guantanamo Bay terrorist camp - Air Force translator Ahmad al-Halabi - has been arrested and charged with the same crime. Moreover, three other military personnel at Guantanamo are said to be under investigation for possessing classified information, and for having improper contact with prisoners.</p>

The United States is investigating the extent of Syria's role in alleged espionage at the Guantanamo detention center for hundreds of Afghan war prisoners, a top general said, as a probe widened to other US services.An Air Force translator, Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, was arrested July 23 on charges of espionage and aiding the enemy by attempting to send intelligence, names and serial numbers of prisoners to Syria, and carrying a laptop computer with 180 classified notes for delivery to Syria."If it turns out that this guy is guilty, and it turns out that he was talking to Syria...

<p>September 25, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - An Air Force translator at the terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was caught downloading secrets from the military's ultra-secure computer network and e-mailing the files to Syria, Pentagon officials revealed yesterday. The brazen act of betrayal by Syrian-born Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, 24, was among new details that emerged in the spy scandal at the high-security prison that could involve four other officers.</p>

<p>Ahmad al Halabi liked to fiddle with robots in high school. He grew up in one of America's biggest Arab communities, and went straight into the Air Force after graduation.</p> <p>He planned to marry his fiance days after his tour as an Arabic translator ended at Guantanamo Bay.</p>