Ahmad al Halabi

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Ahmad al Halabi was a decorated senior airman in the United States Air Force, who served between 2000 and 2005 at Travis Air Force Base. He faced 30 charges when serving in Guantanamo detention camp.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] as a translator to US Forces. He earned Airman of The Year in 2001 for his dedication and service, and was promoted Below-The-Zone to his E4 rank.

AT Guantanamo, a faction within the camp's security officials fueled by post-September 11 sentiments suspected that the base's Muslim chaplain, James Yee, and several Muslim servicemen working on the base, like Al Halabi, had somehow conspired to help the captives. However after a lengthy investigation, the investigators concluded that there wasn't a scrap of evidence to back up the fears of those security officials.

Different sources list different numbers of charges al-Halabi faced. PBS Newshour reported he faced 32 charges.[10] The New York Times reported he faced 30 charges. On December 23, 2003, Air Force spokesmen announced that some of the charges against al-Halabi had been dropped, but insisted he still faced insignificant charges, and would still be prosecuted.[11]

On September 13, 2004, days before his trial, the Los Angeles Times reported that the case against al-Halabi had crumbled and been "marked by missteps".[12] Tech Sergeant Marc Palmosina, the lead investigator, had to be replaced after he was charged with mishandling the case evidence. He was also faced unrelated sexual assault charges.

"Defense attorneys say the documents mailed back to the base or discovered in his luggage have proved to be innocuous or easily explained. For example, Al Halabi received permission from supervisors to type the translated letters from prisoners into his personal laptop because the military didn’t have enough government computers to go around, defense attorneys say."[12]

According to Siobhan McEvoy-Levy, author of Peace and Resistance in Youth Cultures: Reading the Politics of Peacebuilding from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games, suspicious notations that security officials found, that they accused al-Halabi of transmitting to America's enemies, turned out to be no more than the Dewey Decimal library references of books captives had requested from the prison library.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Eric Schmitt (2003-09-23). "Airman is charged as spy for Syria at camp in Cuba". The New York Times (Washington DC). Archived from the original on 2015-05-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20150528001753/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/us/airman-is-charged-as-spy-for-syria-at-camp-in-cuba.html. Retrieved 2019-08-02. "The translator, Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, faces more than 30 criminal charges, including accusations that he tried to slip prison maps, cell-block information, names of prisoners and messages from them to an agent of the Syrian government. If convicted of the spying charges, he could face the death penalty." 
  2. ↑ Eric Schmitt (2003-09-25). "Spy Investigation Widens To Include a Navy Sailor". The New York Times (Washington, DC). Archived from the original on 2015-05-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20150528002000/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/us/spy-investigation-widens-to-include-a-navy-sailor.html. Retrieved 2019-08-02. 
  3. ↑ Terence Neilan (2003-09-30). "Guantánamo Bay Aide Is Arrested at Boston Airport". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019-08-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20190802142606/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/30/national/guantnamo-bay-aide-is-arrested-at-boston-airport.html. Retrieved 2019-08-02. "Pentagon officials said last week that it was likely that Airman al-Halabi and Captain Yee knew each other, given the camp's small size and the need for Arabic-speaking interpreters in many of the camp's daily operations." 
  4. ↑ Tim Golden (2004-12-19). "LOYALTIES AND SUSPICIONS: The Muslim Servicemen; How Dubious Evidence Spurred Relentless Guantánamo Spy Hunt". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190305145215/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/washington/us/loyalties-and-suspicions-the-muslim-servicemen-how-dubious.html. Retrieved 2019-08-02. 
  5. ↑ Erik Saar; Viveca Novak Edition illustrated (2005). Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantanamo. Penguin Press. pp. 35, 47. ISBN 9781594200663. https://books.google.ca/books?id=B_zlAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Ahmad+Al+Halabi%22+-wikipedia&dq=%22Ahmad+Al+Halabi%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjH2IDAqOPjAhWlnuAKHbt_BjUQ6AEISzAG. 
  6. ↑ David Cole; James Dempsey; Nancy Talanian (2006). Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties In The Name Of National Security. The New Press. p. 233. ISBN 9781595585868. https://books.google.ca/books?id=CVTMQDfy0zEC&pg=PA233&dq=%22Ahmad+Al+Halabi%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjH2IDAqOPjAhWlnuAKHbt_BjUQ6AEIPzAE#v=onepage&q=%22Ahmad%20Al%20Halabi%22%20-wikipedia&f=false. 
  7. ↑ James Yee (2005). For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire. PublicAffairs. pp. 67, 79, 83, 102, 104, 128-129, 131-132, 135, 166-168, 192, 215-216, 226, 232. ISBN 9780786749478. https://books.google.ca/books?id=YjsGXmg-pVAC&pg=PA79&dq=%22Ahmad+Al+Halabi%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjH2IDAqOPjAhWlnuAKHbt_BjUQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=halabi&f=false. 
  8. ↑ Clark Butler, ed (2007). Guantanamo Bay and the Judicial-moral Treatment of the Other. Purdue University Press. p. 44. ISBN 9781557534279. https://books.google.ca/books?id=NYRO4JL21UMC&pg=PA44&dq=%22Ahmad+Al+Halabi%22+-wikipedia+guantanamo+OR+gitmo+OR+gtmo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9z6GAqePjAhUQU98KHXaRDAYQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=%22Ahmad%20Al%20Halabi%22%20-wikipedia%20guantanamo%20OR%20gitmo%20OR%20gtmo&f=false. 
  9. ↑ Richard D. Mahoney (2004). Arcade Publishing. p. 221. ISBN 9781559707145. https://books.google.ca/books?id=7Vd9hk7pfFAC&pg=PA221&dq=%22Ahmad+Al+Halabi%22+-wikipedia+guantanamo+OR+gitmo+OR+gtmo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9z6GAqePjAhUQU98KHXaRDAYQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=%22Ahmad%20Al%20Halabi%22%20-wikipedia%20guantanamo%20OR%20gitmo%20OR%20gtmo&f=false.+"Two weeks later, mlitary police arrested U.S. Air Force senior airman Ahmad al-Halabi, who had been serving as a translator at Guantanamo, on thirty-two criminal charges, including spying and 'unlawfully delivering baklava pastries to detainees.' If convicted, he and Captain Yee faced execution by firing squad. It was a case of institutional farce preceding human tragedy." 
  10. ↑ "Air Force Translator At Guantanamo Bay Prison Faces Espionage Charges". PBS Newshour. 2003-09-23. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/law-july-dec03-airforce_09-23. Retrieved 2019-08-02. "Those charges could carry the death penalty, according to Eugene Fidell, a civilian lawyer in Washington and president of the National Institute of Military Justice." 
  11. ↑ "Guantanamo translator gets partial respite". Al Jazeera. 2003-12-21. https://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2003/12/20084914159206132.html. Retrieved 2019-08-02. "Air Force spokesman Larry Clavette said that one charge of espionage against Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, 23, was dropped, as well as an allegation that he aided the enemy and wrongfully e-mailed detainee information. But he added: 'A number of very significant charges remain referred against him. The government fully intends to prosecute.'" 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Eric Bailey (2004-09-13). "As Trial Nears, Case Against Airman Is Marked by Missteps". Los Angeles Times (Sacramento). https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-sep-13-me-airman13-story.html. Retrieved 2019-08-02. "Nearly half of the 30 original charges against Al Halabi have been dropped amid revelations of sloppy evidence-gathering and defense claims of overzealous prosecution against the Muslim airman, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Syria." 
  13. ↑ Siobhan McEvoy-Levy (2017). Peace and Resistance in Youth Cultures: Reading the Politics of Peacebuilding from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games. Springer. p. 152. ISBN 9781137498717. https://books.google.ca/books?id=ZDxEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA152&dq=%22Ahmad+Al+Halabi%22+-wikipedia+guantanamo+OR+gitmo+OR+gtmo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9z6GAqePjAhUQU98KHXaRDAYQ6AEINTAC#v=onepage&q=%22Ahmad%20Al%20Halabi%22%20-wikipedia%20guantanamo%20OR%20gitmo%20OR%20gtmo&f=false. Retrieved 2019-08-02. "Halabi (aged 25) was prosecuted for allegedly being part of a spy ring in Guantanamo and had been accused of sending coded messages. He was later cleared of the charges, along with Chaplain John Yee, another Muslim member of the US military working in Guantanamo. Some of the 'codes' were revealed to be library references." 
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