No Syria Link Is Seen in Spy Case

Despite U.S. charges implicating Syria in the Guantanamo Bay spy case, the State Department has no information about Syrian government involvement and has not been asked to protest to Damascus, senior State Department officials said Wednesday.

The detention of three Muslim Americans who worked at the top-security base in Cuba, where suspected members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network captured in Afghanistan are held, has rocked the Pentagon and triggered a military investigation.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the case has been the linkage made by the government in court documents between Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad I. Al-Halabi and Syria, which is on a list of states Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism. The Syrian government has denied any involvement with Al-Halabi.

The State Department officials seemed to back up, to some extent, Syria’s denials.

“We’re not aware of any information linking the government of Syria or official Syrian government involvement to this case,” said one senior State Department official, who asked not to be identified.

Added another senior official: “There’s nothing to protest [to Syria about] as they’re not involved.”

The State Department issues public or diplomatic protests in cases of illegal or illicit actions by foreign governments. No action has been taken or requested by other U.S. government entities, including the White House, Justice Department or FBI, the officials said.

Some U.S. officials now suggest that Al-Halabi, 24, may instead be linked to Syrian individuals -- or possibly the Muslim Brotherhood, a group with suspected ties to Al Qaeda -- rather than to the government.

Al-Halabi was arrested July 23 after serving eight months as a translator at Guantanamo Bay. He is charged with trying to pass more than 180 notes from detainees at the prison’s Camp Delta, as well as a map of the prison and flight paths to it.

The Air Force charge sheets filed against Al-Halabi repeatedly contend that he was trying to benefit Syria. They say his activity was done “with intent or reason to believe it would be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of Syria.”

Other times, the charge sheets allege that Al-Halabi attempted to deliver material directly concerning intelligence gathering and planning for the U.S.-declared war on terrorism “to a citizen of a foreign government by carrying such notes en route to Syria, a foreign nation.” The “citizen” was not identified.

The government alleges that Al-Halabi had “contact with the embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic, a foreign diplomatic establishment,” and that he failed to properly report that contact, as is required of a serviceman.

Al-Halabi, who was born in Syria, immigrated to the United States as a teenager and grew up in the Detroit area. He joined the Air Force in January 2000 and worked as a linguist and translator. He was stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California before serving at Guantanamo Bay.

Lawyers for Al-Halabi said he was arrested en route to California before traveling to Syria -- not to act as a spy, but to wed a Syrian woman.

His military defense attorneys have insisted that he had no ties to the Syrian government and was not a spy, although he has been charged with attempted espionage and trying to aid the enemy. A conviction in a military court-martial could bring the death penalty.

Some U.S. officials suspect Al-Halabi may have been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in part because of reported ties between the group and Al Qaeda.

In 1982, the Syrian government responded to a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama with an armed assault that reportedly killed between 10,000 and 25,000 Syrians.

In May, remnants of the brotherhood called on President Bashar Assad’s government to end any form of cooperation with Washington.

U.S. officials note that the Syrian government has in the recent past aided Washington by sharing intelligence on Islamic extremists’ plots against the United States.

Intelligence given by Syria to the Bush administration in the spring of 2002 concerning a plot against the U.S. Navy in Bahrain helped avert the attack, according to senior U.S. officials.

Al-Halabi is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California while a general at Travis decides whether he should be court-martialed.

Two other Muslim Americans have been arrested at Guantanamo Bay, but officials there and at the Pentagon have said that while the three most likely knew one another, they do not believe they were working together as part of a spy ring.

Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, 31, also an interpreter at Camp Delta, was arrested Monday and charged Tuesday with giving false statements to federal authorities. He was taken into custody at Logan International Airport in Boston, where officials allegedly found him carrying classified material, including compact discs with Camp Delta information.

The third arrest was of Capt. James Y. Yee, 35, a Muslim chaplain and Army West Point graduate. He has not been charged, but officials are investigating whether he too might have compromised security by attempting to bring classified material out of the base. Yee was arrested at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 10.