A US Air Force translator for suspected members of Al Qaeda network at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp tried to send classified information about the prisoners to his native Syria, military authorities charged. On its part, Damascus said on Wednesday that the US accusations were "baseless and illogical."
In statements he delivered during the reception ceremony of the Arabic and foreign news agencies correspondents to Damascus at the information ministry Wednesday, the Syrian information minister, Ahmad al-Hassan, commented "How does the US train and mobilize someone in a vital location and who classifies secrecy and then claims that is a spy for another country."
"Probably the man the US authorities arrested is an American national of a Syrian origin but how does the US administration trust him and mobilize him in a location that requires full secrecy." Al-Hassan said.
He said that these accusations come within the framework of the slander campaigns being targeted against Syria.
Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi is behind bars at a California Air Force base, facing 32 criminal charges.
Military authorities accused al-Halabi, 24, of sending e-mail with information about the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay "to unauthorized person or persons whom he, the accused, knew to be the enemy," The AP reported.
A military attorney representing al-Halabi, Air Force Maj. James E. Key III, denied the charges, telling The Washington Post: "Airman al-Halabi is not a spy and he is not a terrorist."
Al-Halabi worked for nine months as an Arabic language translator at Guantanamo Bay. When he was detained, al-Halabi was carrying two handwritten notes from detainees that al-Halabi planned to turn over to someone traveling to Syria, the charging documents say.
Secret documents al-Halabi is accused of trying to pass to Syria include details of flights to and from the Guantanamo Bay base; names, serial numbers and cell numbers of prisoners; a map of the base; and other military documents.
(Albawaba.com)
