Airman accused of terror spying

A U.S. Air Force enlisted man has become the second service member to be accused of espionage at the U.S. naval base prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he translated interrogations of Arabic-speaking Taliban and al Qaeda terror suspects.

Also yesterday, a Pentagon policy document revealed that the military appointed its Muslim chaplains based on suggestions or training from three U.S. Muslim groups, each of which was linked to radical elements of Islam.

The Pentagon announced the charges against Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi, while it also investigated whether the prison’s lone Muslim chaplain, Army Capt. James J. Yee, committed espionage and aided the enemy. Officials say they also are investigating whether any link exists between Senior Airman Halabi and Capt. Yee.

Officials said Senior Airman Halabi was arrested July 23, nearly two months before Capt. Yee’s Sept. 10 apprehension. The Air Force imprisoned the airman at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. He had been assigned to Travis Air Force Base in the same state.

The Air Force charged him with five counts of espionage, three counts of aiding the enemy, nine counts of giving false statements to interrogators, 11 counts of failing to obey a lawful order and one count of bank fraud.

Normal military judicial procedure would be for Senior Airman Halabi to get a pretrial Article 32 hearing. An Air Force convening authority would decide afterward whether to court-martial him, administer nonjudicial punishment or dismiss the case.

One of the three Muslim groups involved in training or approving chaplains is the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va. U.S. government agents raided that group last year as part of a sweep of organizations suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terror network. The graduate school trains would-be military chaplains. The other two groups endorse the candidates.

The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council in Arlington sponsored Capt. Yee’s chaplaincy.

Capt. Yee, a West Point graduate, resigned from the Army in the early 1990s and traveled to Damascus, Syria, to receive training in Arabic and traditional Islamic beliefs. He returned to the United States, rejoined the Army and was posted to Guantanamo in November.

His main job was to advise the Task Force Guantanamo commander, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, on Muslim customs. Capt. Yee received unlimited access to prisoners who sought his counsel and led Friday prayers.

The defense department documents showed that the Veteran Affairs Council was a designee of the American Muslim Foundation (AMF), which also was included in the Justice Department sweep.

The AMF was co-founded by Abdurahman Alamoudi, an acknowledged supporter of the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Mr. Alamoudi in 2000 contributed money to the Senate campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. She returned it after Mr. Alamoudi’s anti-Jewish sentiments were made public.

The second Pentagon-approved endorser is the Islamic Society of North America. One of its board members, Siraj Wahhaj, was named in 1995 by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as one of more than 100 “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the attempt to blow up New York monuments.

Mr. Wahhaj also served as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abel Rahman, who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Mr. Wahhaj was never convicted of a crime.

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