zagadka z Guantanamo Bay

[Gość: Independent]

Spy mystery at Guantanamo Bay as Syria denies link to accused US air force
worker
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
25 September 2003


Syria has flatly denied having links with the US Air Force translator at the
Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention camp, who has been charged with trying to
hand secret information about the base to the Damascus government.

In the first public comment of the case, Ahmad al-Hassan, the Syrian
Information Minister, called the reports "baseless and illogical" yesterday,
adding: "Would the CIA fail to find a translator it trusts and had previously
trained for a job of such a level of secrecy?"

Court papers claim 24-year-old Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi tried to pass to
Damascus material including hundreds of notes from prisoners, a map of the
base in Cuba and details of its air traffic, plus intelligence documents.

The Syrian-born SA Halabi has been charged on more than 30 counts, including
four of espionage and three of aiding the enemy. The documents do not make
clear to whom, if anyone, the sensitive information was specifically
addressed, or whether it reached its destination. If convicted, he could face
the death penalty.

When he was arrested on July 23, SA Halabi was carrying two handwritten notes
from prisoners. The court documents claim he was planning to give them to a
person travelling to Syria. His laptop computer also contained 180 messages
from some of the 660 al-Qa'ida and Taliban suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.
These too he was allegedly intending to send to Syria or to the Gulf state of
Qatar.

The court papers submitted by the US military authorities also claim SA
Halabi took photographs of the camp, had unauthorised contacts with
prisoners - including giving them baklava pastries - and had unauthorised
contacts with the Syrian embassy. He is also accused of lying to the Air
Force by claiming to have been naturalised a US citizen in 2001.

But all talk of espionage is rejected by SA Halabi's relatives. They agreed
he visited the Syrian embassy in Washington, but simply to arrange visits to
his native country to move his Syrian-born fiancée to the US. Otherwise, he
has no contacts with the government of President Bashar Assad, and has
applied for US citizenship, they say.

Whatever the outcome, the case, days after the disclosure of the arrest of a
Muslim chaplain at the camp, has shaken the US authorities. It has called
into question the security of a remote and supposedly super-safe facility at
the heart of President George Bush's "war on terrorism". The episode has
raised fears that al-Qa'ida, far from being on the run in the US, may have
penetrated the military that is pursuing it.

Almost certainly SA Halabi and the chaplain, US Army Captain James Yee, knew
each other. The charges also suggest SA Halabi did not report unauthorised
communications between detainees and other military personnel at Guantanamo
Bay, raising the possibility of a wider ring. At least two other people are
being investigated, CNN reported yesterday.

Whatever the outcome, the affair will cast a further cloud over ties between
America and Syria. Although the two countries maintain diplomatic relations,
Washington has long accused Syria of being a sponsor of terrorism, in
particular of radical groups operating against Israel. America also says
Damascus operates secret chemical and biological weapons programmes. Tensions
reached a peak immediately after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein when Donald
Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, even hinted at military action against Syria.

He suggested Damascus had offered sanctuary to prominent members of the
former Iraqi regime, and accused the Assad government of allowing terrorists
and weapons across its borders to aid the resistance opposing the American
invasion force.