Translator Pleads Guilty to Taking Documents

A former Arabic translator at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp pleaded guilty Monday to taking classified material from the U.S. naval base and lying to investigators.

Ahmed Fathy Mehalba’s plea in U.S. district court here marked the end of a widely publicized investigation into a possible spy ring at the American military installation in Cuba, where more than 500 prisoners captured in the war on terrorism are being held.

No espionage conspiracy was uncovered, and federal prosecutors were left to bring significantly reduced charges or to drop the charges entirely against Mehalba and three others.

Mehalba, 32, pleaded guilty to a three-count indictment. Under a plea agreement crafted by federal prosecutors and Mehalba’s lawyers, the Egyptian-born U.S. citizen is expected to be sentenced in March to 20 months in prison.

Counting time served since his arrest in September 2003, Mehalba should be freed shortly thereafter.

If convicted of the original spying charges, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison and a $1-million fine.

U.S. Atty. Michael J. Sullivan on Monday called the plea deal “a proper and fair result,” explaining: “These charges were brought to redress serious breaches in security and Mr. Mehalba’s failure when first interviewed to honestly acknowledge them.”

But Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- a civil rights and advocacy group in Washington -- took a broader view of the outcome.

“We are glad to see this whole, sad scenario come to a conclusion,” he said. “All of these cases were very troubling to the American Muslim community, because they seemed to be based more on anti-Muslim hysteria than they were on the actual facts.”

The collapse of the cases against the four men accused of compromising security at Guantanamo Bay has provided fuel for critics who contend the botched prosecutions were typical of the government’s performance in handling terrorism suspects since Sept. 11.

The Bush administration policy of holding suspects indefinitely without charging them was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, and numerous trials of terrorism suspects have resulted in sharply reduced charges or acquittals.

The Guantanamo Bay spying cases initially proved embarrassing for the military because they suggested that the facility’s high-level security had been penetrated by military and civilian officials inside the prison who possibly were acting as agents for Al Qaeda.

But as the cases developed, defense attorneys were able to prove that prosecutors had been overzealous in charging the suspects, and much of the evidence against them unraveled.

Mehalba, a former Boston cab driver, was one of four men arrested in the summer of 2003 in an inquiry into possible links to Al Qaeda or the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Three of the men were Muslims who worshipped together at the prison camp.

In July 2003, Senior Airman Ahmad Al Halabi, an Air Force supply clerk who worked as a translator, was charged with attempted espionage. Al Halabi, 25, also was accused of removing classified letters and detainee rosters.

But after an investigation, prosecutors dropped the spying charges. In September, Al Halabi pleaded guilty to mishandling classified materials, taking photographs in violation of orders and lying to investigators. He was sentenced to 10 months -- the time he had been held in custody -- and received a bad-conduct discharge.

Also arrested in the spying investigation was Army Capt. James Y. Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. In addition, he faced charges of adultery and storing pornography on a government computer.

Yee, a West Point graduate, was held for 76 days. The charges against him at first were reduced, and later dropped. He received an honorable discharge from the Army.

Yee, 36, resigned in August, saying military officials never apologized to him.

Army Reserve Col. Jackie Farr was charged with mishandling classified information and lying to investigators. Farr, the only non-Muslim charged, had been an interrogator at the prison camp. Criminal charges against him were dropped in August.

Mehalba had been hired as an Arabic translator by Titan Systems Corp., a San Diego-based defense contractor, in September 2002 and began working at the Guantanamo Bay facility in January 2003. As part of his work there, Mehalba was granted an interim security clearance and given access to classified documents.

He was arrested at Boston’s Logan International Airport in September 2003 after returning from a family visit in Egypt.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael D. Ricciuti, chief of the anti-terrorism unit in Boston’s FBI office, told the court Monday that Mehalba had denied he was carrying “government-related material,” but was found with computer discs containing 725 government documents. The prosecutor said more than half were marked “secret.”

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Mehalba could have faced 37 to 46 months in prison. Ricciuti said Monday that he sought a lighter sentence because Mehalba suffered from “significant reduced mental capacity” at the time of his crimes. Mehalba said he had taken lithium and other medications for depression, bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder.

Prosecutors did not disclose what type of material was contained on the computer discs found in Mehalba’s possession.

Times staff writer Richard A. Serrano in Ft. Hood, Texas, contributed to this report.