FriscoLady
11-18-2003, 09:48 AM
Court-martial ordered in Gitmo espionage case
Translator will not face death penalty
By Nicole Gaudiano
Times staff writer
An Arabic translator accused of espionage will not face the death penalty, but his case will proceed to a general court-martial, the 18th Air Force commander ruled Nov. 6.
The most serious charges against Senior Airman Ahmad I. Al Halabi that were referred for trial include four specifications of espionage and one specification of aiding the enemy — charges that could have carried the death penalty if the general court-martial convening authority had decided to make it a capital case.
Other charges he faces include failure to obey a lawful general order, five specifications of making false statements, two specifications alleging he willfully retained documents without authority to do so and one specification implicating him in a fraudulent credit-application scheme.
The charges are the result of an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, FBI and other federal agencies. Al Halabi was assigned for nine months to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an interpreter for the 660 accused terrorists held there.
Investigators say, among other things, he tried to deliver secret documents and two written notes from detainees concerning U.S. intelligence gathering to a citizen of a foreign government by carrying them to Syria. On his computer, 180 detainees’ notes were found, the charges say. They also say he tried to communicate with an unspecified “enemy” by transmitting detainees’ serial numbers through unsecured e-mail.
Of the original 30 charges against Al Halabi, 10 were dropped. Among them were one specification of aiding the enemy, four specifications of making false statements and four specifications of failing to obey a lawful general order — including the charge that he made an illegal baklava delivery to detainees.
“When one-third of the original charges don’t even meet the minimum standards to proceed to trial, that’s always good news,” said one of Al Halabi’s attorneys, Donald G. Rehkopf. “And it vindicates what Al Halabi’s military lawyers have been saying from the beginning, which is that the defendant had never made anti-American statements, that he never knowingly committed any crimes and continues through today to maintain his innocence.”
Maj. Gen. Paul W. Essex, 18th Air Force commander and general court-martial convening authority, selected a panel of court members from officers stationed at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., to hear the case. No date has been set.
His decision falls one day after Rehkopf filed a letter with 18th Air Force and the trial counsels at Travis, accusing the government of trampling on Al Halabi’s constitutional rights and denying the defense discovery critical to his Article 32 hearing.
In a case hinging on the mishandling of classified information, Rehkopf accused the prosecution of making mistakes — namely, treating classified information as unclassified.
“There’s tremendous dispute as to what was classified and what wasn’t,” Rehkopf said in an interview. “It’s almost like the Keystone Kops. If the government can’t sort out what’s classified and what’s not, how the hell is some poor enlisted guy supposed to figure this out?”
In his letter, Rehkopf warned the prosecutors — Lt. Col. Bryan T. Wheeler and his assistant Capt. Dennis Kaw — that they would be called as witnesses, specifically in one instance to discuss the alleged error they made regarding the classification of information.
“If they can make mistakes about classified material, then I want to know why my client can’t make mistakes,” Rehkopf said.
Asked to comment on behalf of the prosecutors, Capt. Michele Tasista, a spokeswoman at Travis, said, “Due to the sensitive nature of the case and the sensitivities involved, there really wouldn’t be a comment.”
Prosecutors have provided some material to the defense as unclassified, only to tell the defense later it was classified, and vice versa, according to Maj. Kim E. London, an attorney for Al Halabi. She described the scenario in a Nov. 2 letter to the trial counsels and 18th Air Force.
In one instance, prosecutors initially said information regarding Al Halabi’s pretrial confinement hearing and charges was confidential, she wrote. When questioned about the handling of such information, she wrote, Wheeler’s response was essentially, “We made an error, it’s not confidential, it’s ‘sensitive — for official use only.’”
Rehkopf wrote, “Either the government has no idea itself as to what is or is not ‘classified,’ or it is ex post facto illegally classifying everything with the false hope of convicting the accused of some transgression. … But for sure, this is not the stuff that death penalty cases are based upon.”
Translator will not face death penalty
By Nicole Gaudiano
Times staff writer
An Arabic translator accused of espionage will not face the death penalty, but his case will proceed to a general court-martial, the 18th Air Force commander ruled Nov. 6.
The most serious charges against Senior Airman Ahmad I. Al Halabi that were referred for trial include four specifications of espionage and one specification of aiding the enemy — charges that could have carried the death penalty if the general court-martial convening authority had decided to make it a capital case.
Other charges he faces include failure to obey a lawful general order, five specifications of making false statements, two specifications alleging he willfully retained documents without authority to do so and one specification implicating him in a fraudulent credit-application scheme.
The charges are the result of an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, FBI and other federal agencies. Al Halabi was assigned for nine months to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an interpreter for the 660 accused terrorists held there.
Investigators say, among other things, he tried to deliver secret documents and two written notes from detainees concerning U.S. intelligence gathering to a citizen of a foreign government by carrying them to Syria. On his computer, 180 detainees’ notes were found, the charges say. They also say he tried to communicate with an unspecified “enemy” by transmitting detainees’ serial numbers through unsecured e-mail.
Of the original 30 charges against Al Halabi, 10 were dropped. Among them were one specification of aiding the enemy, four specifications of making false statements and four specifications of failing to obey a lawful general order — including the charge that he made an illegal baklava delivery to detainees.
“When one-third of the original charges don’t even meet the minimum standards to proceed to trial, that’s always good news,” said one of Al Halabi’s attorneys, Donald G. Rehkopf. “And it vindicates what Al Halabi’s military lawyers have been saying from the beginning, which is that the defendant had never made anti-American statements, that he never knowingly committed any crimes and continues through today to maintain his innocence.”
Maj. Gen. Paul W. Essex, 18th Air Force commander and general court-martial convening authority, selected a panel of court members from officers stationed at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., to hear the case. No date has been set.
His decision falls one day after Rehkopf filed a letter with 18th Air Force and the trial counsels at Travis, accusing the government of trampling on Al Halabi’s constitutional rights and denying the defense discovery critical to his Article 32 hearing.
In a case hinging on the mishandling of classified information, Rehkopf accused the prosecution of making mistakes — namely, treating classified information as unclassified.
“There’s tremendous dispute as to what was classified and what wasn’t,” Rehkopf said in an interview. “It’s almost like the Keystone Kops. If the government can’t sort out what’s classified and what’s not, how the hell is some poor enlisted guy supposed to figure this out?”
In his letter, Rehkopf warned the prosecutors — Lt. Col. Bryan T. Wheeler and his assistant Capt. Dennis Kaw — that they would be called as witnesses, specifically in one instance to discuss the alleged error they made regarding the classification of information.
“If they can make mistakes about classified material, then I want to know why my client can’t make mistakes,” Rehkopf said.
Asked to comment on behalf of the prosecutors, Capt. Michele Tasista, a spokeswoman at Travis, said, “Due to the sensitive nature of the case and the sensitivities involved, there really wouldn’t be a comment.”
Prosecutors have provided some material to the defense as unclassified, only to tell the defense later it was classified, and vice versa, according to Maj. Kim E. London, an attorney for Al Halabi. She described the scenario in a Nov. 2 letter to the trial counsels and 18th Air Force.
In one instance, prosecutors initially said information regarding Al Halabi’s pretrial confinement hearing and charges was confidential, she wrote. When questioned about the handling of such information, she wrote, Wheeler’s response was essentially, “We made an error, it’s not confidential, it’s ‘sensitive — for official use only.’”
Rehkopf wrote, “Either the government has no idea itself as to what is or is not ‘classified,’ or it is ex post facto illegally classifying everything with the false hope of convicting the accused of some transgression. … But for sure, this is not the stuff that death penalty cases are based upon.”