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| Guantánamo camp security probe widens |
| By Miami Herald |
| Published: 09/29/2003 |
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U.S. investigators are trying to determine the depth of security problems at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp for terrorism suspects following the arrests of two Muslim servicemen, one of whom has been accused of spying for Syria, officials said Wednesday. Investigators are also scrutinizing a third person, a Navy service member, for possible security violations but have not yet arrested him, said a senior defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. ''Were not sure whether were dealing with a few individuals or something more extensive and more organized, like a spy ring,'' added a senior U.S. intelligence official. He said it was possible that other U.S. military personnel who served or are serving at Camp Delta, the prison at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, could come under scrutiny. The ongoing scandal suggests that two members of the 2,000-strong military team running the prison project -- an Air Force enlisted man and an Army cleric -- were at the very least able to evade security procedures and expose a closely guarded secret at the isolated naval base: the identities of some of the 660 prisoners from 42 nations. Prisoners' families and their countries of origin have at times identified a few of the men and boys being held there, among them David Hicks, an Australian who allegedly threatened his officers, and Yaser Isam Hamdi, a Louisiana-born Saudi citizen who was transferred from the base to a Navy brig stateside. U.S. forces working at Camp Delta are strictly forbidden from disclosing the prisoners' names. But the charge sheet against Senior Airman Ahmad Halabi, revealed by the Air Force this week, alleges that the man who did a nine-month Camp Delta stint as an Arabic-language translator e-mailed some prisoners' names and U.S.-issued military identification numbers to somebody offshore. It also alleges he carried some prisoners' letters off the base, along with other sensitive security information, and planned to deliver the data to Syria. If proved, the allegations mean that Halabi also broke another U.S. intelligence rule at the base -- that all terror suspect's letters must be screened before the Red Cross can deliver them to his family. |
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