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Probe Into Breaches at Guantanamo Expands
EFL to the new stuff.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 officials said Wednesday. "We donât presume that the two we know about is all there is to it," Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. No surprise here, sadly. A member of the Navy who was also part of the small military community at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp is under investigation in the security probe but has not been arrested, Pentagon officials said. They did not identify the service member. So far, charges have been filed only against Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, 24, who worked as an Arabic language translator for the detainees. Al-Halabi denies the charges, said his lawyer, Air Force Maj. James Key III. "Lies! All lies!" He is also accused of not reporting unauthorized contacts with the Syrian Embassy, but Key said those contacts were to arrange for a trip to Syria to get married. Al-Halabi had his plane ticket for that trip with him when he was arrested July 23 after arriving in Florida from Guantanamo Bay, Key said. Nabbed him just in time, did we? Syrian government spokesmen denied links to the airman, who was arrested in July, more than six weeks before the arrest of the chaplain, Army Capt. Yousef Yee, 35. Yee has not been charged but is being held in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., on suspicion of breaching Guantanamo Bay security. Yee also has ties to Syria: He learned Arabic and studied Islam there for four years in the early 1990s. Al-Halabi lived in Syria at the time but he was still a boy; he traveled with his family to the Detroit area in 1996 and went to high school in a Detroit suburb. Wotta coincidence. The two men served at Guantanamo Bay at the same time and knew each other, though the extent of their relationship is unclear, said military officials and Key. Was one of them the controller? Word of Yeeâs Sept. 10 arrest leaked over the weekend, and military officials acknowledged al-Halabiâs arrest Tuesday after CNN first reported it. Air Force Brig. Gen. Bradley S. Baker had ordered al-Halabiâs preliminary court hearing closed, but the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals ordered some of the proceedings to be opened, Key said. Wonder why? Al-Halabi was a supply clerk before being pressed into service as a translator at Guantanamo Bay, according to Key and military records. He is accused of failing to report improper contacts between prisoners and unidentified other members of the military. Al-Halabi is being held at a prison on Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California. Authorities have imposed restrictions on him including banning al-Halabi from speaking Arabic, Key said. That means he has to speak to his father through a translator when the father visits, Key said. Al-Halabi also has talked on the phone - through translators - to his fiance, who remains in Syria, Key said. He said al-Halabiâs family is shocked at the allegations. Why donât we get the future Missus Little Woman to come over for a vist? Iâm sure we could find something to talk about. Posted by: Steve White 2003-09-25 |
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