EFL:
The Air Force translator accused of espionage at the terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was likely working for Islamic extremists connected to Al Qaeda, The Post has learned.
Note to other ex AF readers, al-Halabi made Senior Airman BTZ, bet the board wishes they could pull that one back.
| I'm not surprised. If they send the dummschitz and the dirt bags, they're stuck blowing up gas stations. If they sent or recruit the smart, clean-cut guys, they go further. It's the "dress for success" thing... |
U.S. officials said yesterday that investigators have traced e-mail communications from senior airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, a Syrian-born translator from Detroit, to a handful of "individuals" in Syria, including one man - whom they would not identify - suspected of ties to Osama bin Laden’s terror network.
"I can say no more."
"The case is going more in the direction of radical Islamic groups instead of the Syrian government. At this point we don’t think there is a Syrian intelligence connection," said a military official.
Other than the fact that nobody operates a radical group in Syria without a permission slip.
| I'll bet the Syrian ambassador's complexion's better this morning, though... |
Court documents revealed yesterday the Air Force was "monitoring and investigating" al-Halabi before he was sent to Guantanamo.
Bwahahahaha
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations had been keeping track of al-Halabi since last November "based on reports of suspicious activity," Special Agent Lance Wega wrote in applying for a search warrant with a California federal court. The warrant was granted. While at Guantanamo, al-Halabi "made statements criticizing United States policy with regard to the detainees and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East" and also "expressed sympathy for and had unauthorized contact with the detainees," Wega wrote. Military investigators searched al-Halabi’s quarters at Guantanamo on July 19 and found several pieces of mail belonging to Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects at the prison camp, Wega said. On his computer’s hard drive, the agent said, investigators found 186 classified Defense Department documents related to the Guantanamo detainees. Computer evidence indicates al-Halabi e-mailed or posted four of those documents on the Internet, Wega said. The implication is that al-Halabi was helping the prisoners communicate among themselves and with the outside world.
Give him the needle. |