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Arabic translator made calls to insurgent safe houses
An Arabic translator who worked for an Army intelligence unit in Iraq was held without bail yesterday on charges that he had lied to gain United States citizenship. Federal prosecutors also said he had made unexplained telephone calls from the United States to people linked to the Iraqi insurgency.The translator had a classified document in his Brooklyn home, a prosecutor said at the bail hearing in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The man was employed under the false name Almaliki Nour by the L-3 Titan Group, which has a military contract to provide Arabic-speaking interpreters, the prosecutor said. While the translator had a security clearance, he was not authorized to have the classified document in his home. "This document, which is quite thick, contained detailed information about the insurgency and the means for combating it," said the prosecutor, John Buretta, an assistant United States attorney. No charges related to the document have been filed. In arguing against bail, Mr. Buretta told Magistrate Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto that investigators had found telephone numbers for two known Iraqi insurgents stored in the man's cellphone address book. Mr. Buretta said the translator had also made about 100 telephone calls to numbers that were directly involved with the insurgency, including some that had been found in safe houses that may have been used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Mr. Zarqawi is the leader of Al Qaeda's Iraq operations. The translator developed ties to several Sunni sheiks whose tribes supported the insurgency, and they provided him with cash to travel to Egypt and Jordan, Mr. Buretta said. He contended that releasing the man, who lives on Hoyt Street in Brooklyn, "likely would directly endanger U.S. soldiers in Iraq." But prosecutors have not charged the man with spying, nor do they contend that he worked as a double agent. It was unclear whether he would face more serious charges related to the classified document. Prosecutors said that much about him - including his real name and his background - remained unclear. At one point, he told F.B.I. agents his real name was Noureedine Malki, but investigators could not confirm that. They believe he is from Morocco. The criminal complaint says the man began seeking political asylum in 1989 under the name Almaliki Nour, claiming he was escaping religious persecution in Lebanon, where he had received death threats because his mother was Roman Catholic and his father Muslim. He claimed that both were killed when his family's house in Beirut was shelled and that he feared that "their fate awaits me." He became a naturalized citizen on Feb. 18, 2000. He later admitted that many of the statements made on his asylum application and a subsequent application for citizenship were false, and that the name was fictitious, according to the criminal complaint. The man's lawyer, Mildred M. Whalen, acknowledged during the hearing that her client had become a citizen based on false statements. But she said that he had spoken to the Sunni sheiks as part of their negotiations to get contracts with the United States military and that the conversations had developed into social relationships. "He would receive calls from them, he would call them to simply ask how they were," Ms. Whalen said. Later, in a telephone interview, she denied that he had had any contacts with insurgents and said that he had never done anything to hurt the American soldiers with whom he had worked. "What I can say is that he became a citizen of this country because he loves this country, and he went to Iraq because he thought he could help this country," she said. "He has never done anything to knowingly harm this country." She said that the military people he worked with had written him letters of recommendation and letters of commendation. She said she could not provide them because her client had handed them over to prosecutors. The complaint said that the man worked for L-3 Titan for about two years. A spokesman for the company, Evan Goetz, said that the man no longer worked there. But Mr. Goetz could not say when the man stopped working for Titan or why, or say anything about the circumstances under which he was hired or about his work there. It was unclear why the translator came under scrutiny, but the complaint said he was interviewed by F.B.I. agents and Department of Defense investigators in Iraq in September to determine, among other things, whether he should continue to have access to classified information. Later, in Brooklyn, he admitted to F.B.I. agents that he had lied about his name, his date of birth and where he was born, among other things, the complaint says. The man, who is charged with three counts of lying to federal authorities, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if he is convicted. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-11-08 |
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