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| Iraq | |
| British interpreter accused of espionage | |
| 2008-10-14 | |
| An interpreter who worked for Britain's top commander in Afghanistan has been accused of spying after being passed over for promotion. London's Old Bailey court was told on Monday that Corporal Daniel James sent a coded message to an Iranian military attaché in Kabul, telling him, "I am at your service." Prosecutor Mark Dennis claimed the two men exchanged emails and 'many telephone conversations'. Dennis, however, said it was not clear whether Corp. James had attempted to become an agent or was already one.
Corp. James has denied collecting and communicating information useful to an enemy and willful misconduct in public office. The Iranian-born translator, however, is accused of carrying confidential NATO files on a computer flash drive when he was arrested in December 2006. "The value of these documents to anyone trying to sell himself as an agent to a foreign power, or to continue promoting himself as such, trying to show how close he was to sensitive information, is all too clear," Dennis claimed. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks. Some sessions are expected to be held behind closed doors. The revelation about James' alleged spying charges comes at a time when Tehran is at loggerheads with London over the imminent release of the only surviving culprit involved in a 1980 terrorist attack on the Iranian embassy in London. Iran has asked Britain to deport Fowzi Badavi-Nejad, the convicted terrorist, to his home country. Badavi-Nejad's release, meanwhile, will reportedly allow the felon to enjoy a safe stay in the UK. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 New last name: "Deever" |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-10-14 17:28 |
| #7 yet he answers to a Chrisitian name: Daniel James. That would be his English name, so that he didn't have to keep explaining how to pronounce the Iranian one, MarkZ. Much like the Help Desk people answering the phone in India will give their name as Dave or Susan instead of Velmurugan (the real name of the nice man who helped me today) or Nandita. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-10-14 17:19 |
| #6 He must have been so useless they "burnt" him instead of using him as a false info conduit. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-10-14 11:46 |
| #5 The accused traitor is said to be Iranian born, yet he answers to a Chrisitian name: Daniel James. Can anyone offer an explanation for that? Odd. I for one would like to see more and more young non-muslims learning the languages of the middle east and south east asia. I would prefer to rely on non-muslims for tranlation work. Put another way, if a muslim and non-muslim are equally qualified for the translation job, then the job goes to the non-muslim. Discriminatory? Yeah. Sue me. |
| Posted by: MarkZ 2008-10-14 11:40 |
| #4 You can bet your shepherd's pie this is not an isolated incident considering he's a British raised subject and infiltrated the Army. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2008-10-14 10:55 |
| #3 Corporal Daniel James sent a coded message to an Iranian military attache in Kabul, telling him, "I am at your service." Are Iranian military attachés in the habit of handing out secret codes to just anybody? Or, contrariwise, did Cpl James send the message off in his own code, hoping the recipient would 1)know that it was in code, and 2)figure out immediately which code he'd used? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-10-14 10:01 |
| #2 sounds like a George Galloway protege. |
| Posted by: Hammerhead 2008-10-14 08:54 |
| #1 I don't guess they have the gallows anymore in Britain. A pity. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-10-14 07:30 |