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Third man held in Guantanamo spy probe
Edited for new details:
An ex-U.S. soldier contracted by the military as an Arabic-language translator has become the third person arrested in connection with an espionage investigation at the U.S. naval base prison for suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, a U.S. citizen of Egyptian descent, was arrested Monday after arriving on a flight from Cairo to Boston where officials searching his bags found a compact disc containing classified information. A military spokeswoman last night said Mr. Mehalba served as an enlisted man in the Army for a short period in 2001 but was discharged without reaching a rank above private first class.
That explains his hiring as a translator, they saw he was ex-military and didn’t look much deeper.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI yesterday, when authorities apprehended Mr. Mehalba at Boston’s Logan International Airport, he told them he was contracted to work as a linguist for the Army and showed a Guantanamo Bay identification badge. It was not immediately clear yesterday when Mr. Mehalba worked at the prison camp or what sort of access he may have had to classified materials there. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers began conducting a routine inspection of Mr. Mehalba’s luggage on Monday after his flight arrived from Cairo, via Milan, Italy. When a further inspection turned up a case of suspicious compact discs including one reportedly containing the classified information, Mr. Mehalba was arrested by agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Wonder why they were so suspicious of the CD’s?
You don't think they might have been looking for an Arab guy with a stack of CDs, do you?
The criminal complaint filed by the FBI in U.S. District Court in Boston said Mr. Mehalba was arrested for lying to officials, telling them "he was not in possession of classified government information." According to the complaint, officials searching a black, soft-sided Army bag in Mr. Mehalba’s possession discovered more than 100 compact discs including one disc containing "classified information including a document labeled ’SECRET.’ " The complaint says that Mr. Mehalba denied knowing how the file got on the disc.
"Somebody musta left it there..."
After telling investigators the discs contained personal documents, he said that "he bought the CDs in Guantanamo Bay, that they were purchased as blanks, that [he] also purchased a computer in Guantanamo Bay and that he downloaded information from the computer onto the discs."
Sure you did. Better have a bill of sale and the name of who sold you the computer.
"He claimed he could not have downloaded secret files from the government computers," the complaint states.
This next part is brand new information.
The 12-page criminal complaint also makes reference to the December 2001 case of Army Spc. Deborah M. Gephardt, a student at the Army’s Counter-Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., who had been arrested for vehicle theft at that time.
That’ll mess up your career.
Mr. Mehalba reported for the interrogator course at the Army’s intelligence school at Fort Huachuca in November 2001 and was discharged in May 2001 when he failed to complete the course, according to Pat Dillingham, a spokeswoman at the fort.
This was his brief Army career, he gets booted in 2001 for failing interrogator school, and gets hired later as a translator working with interrogators. Good move, guys.
If he arrived in November 2001, he probably got the boot in May 2002. Usually they don't boot you before you get there...
Citing an FBI report of Spc. Gephardt’s arrest, the criminal complaint filed against Mr. Mehalba says a search of the specialist’s "quarters revealed a stolen laptop and classified counterintelligence training material."
Hummm
The complaint also said Mr. Mehalba told authorities upon his arrest that he and Spc. Gephardt "were in the Army together" and that she was his girlfriend at Fort Huachuca.
I think somebody needs to have a long talk with Debby.
Mr. Mehalba "once told Gephardt that [his] uncle was an intelligence officer for the Egyptian Army," the complaint said.
I see a pattern, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a intelligence specialist. Got kicked out after failing the interrogator portion of the course. Saw a chance to get back in as a civilian when we put out a call for Arabic speakers to act as translators. This guy sounds like an agent.
Or a wannabe secret agent...

Posted by: Steve 2003-10-01
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=19326