Guantanamo Translator Is Arrested

September 30, 2003
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A physician working as a translator at the U.S. prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was arrested Tuesday, a federal law enforcement official said.

The official, describing the apprehension at Boston's Logan International Airport, identified the suspect as Ahmed Mehalba. The official, who discussed the case on grounds of anonymity, said Mehalba had stopped in Boston Monday after arriving on a flight from Cairo.

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement noticed documents that appeared to have come from the prison camp and that they suspected of being classified. The FBI was called in to interview Mahalba, who denied the documents were his, the official said.

After the interview, the FBI arrested Mehalba on charges of making false statements. He was being held in Boston and further charges are possible, said the official, who declined to describe the nature of the documents in Mehalba's possession.

Earlier, authorities charged an Air Force enlisted man, Ahmad I. al-Halbi, with espionage for allegedly sending classified information about the Guantanamo facility to an unspecified "enemy." He also was accused of planning to give other secrets about the prison to someone traveling to Syria.

A military investigator said last week that Al-Halabi had been under investigation before he arrived at the base.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations began looking into his case in November 2002 while he was a supply clerk at Travis Air Force Base in California, the agent wrote in court documents. Al-Halabi was sent to the Cuban base weeks later as an Arabic language interpreter for the al-Qaida and Taliban suspects there.

Another suspect is Army Capt. Yousef Yee, a Muslim chaplain who is being detained without charge at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Al-Halabi is behind bars at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., forbidden to speak Arabic.

Army Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for the base, said last Friday that military authorities strengthened security at Guantanamo Bay in the wake of the arrests.

She said that officials were making certain that restrictions on handling documents, making phone calls and sending e-mails are being followed.

Al-Halabi had said that he is innocent. One of his lawyers, Air Force Maj. James Key III, said al-Halabi is a naturalized U.S. citizen and a patriotic American.

The most serious of the 32 charges against al-Halabi carries a possible death sentence. The implication is that al-Halabi was helping the prisoners communicate among themselves and with the outside world.

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