Guantanamo Spy Case Advances

An Air Force officer made a secret recommendation on which charges to pursue against a translator accused of espionage at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terror suspects, the translator’s lawyer said Tuesday.

The report from Col. Anne Burman suggested to Air Force officials which of the 32 charges Senior Airman Ahmad I. Al-Halabi should be tried on. Air Force generals will decide whether Al-Halabi will face a court-martial on the espionage and other charges -- and whether military prosecutors can seek the death penalty if he is convicted of the most serious counts.

Burman’s report is classified, said Maj. James Key III, one of Al-Halabi’s appointed military lawyers. Key said that keeping such a report secret is unusual in the military justice system and that Al-Halabi’s defense team will challenge the secrecy.

An Air Force spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Al-Halabi, who worked for about nine months as an Arabic translator at the prison camp, was arrested in July. He’s accused of gathering secret information about the prison camp and collecting more than 180 messages from prisoners with plans to give those secrets to Syria and an unidentified enemy.

Al-Halabi is the only one of three men arrested in an espionage probe at Guantanamo Bay to be charged in military court. A Muslim Army chaplain, Capt. James Y. Yee, is being held without charge after being arrested last month. Last week, federal agents arrested a civilian translator at the base, Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, when they allegedly found secret documents from the camp on a compact disc Mehalba was carrying back to the United States from Egypt.

The military says the probe of possible security breaches at Guantanamo Bay is continuing.

Burman was the officer who presided at Al-Halabi’s Article 32 hearing last month. Such hearings are a kind of mini-trial, during which military prosecutors present their case so officials can determine whether an accused service member will be brought to trial.

Burman’s recommendations first go to Brig. Gen. Bradley S. Baker, the commanding officer of Al-Halabi’s unit at Travis Air Force Base in California. Baker will decide whether the charges should be dropped, whether Al-Halabi will be tried before a special court-martial or whether to send the case to a higher-ranking Air Force general for further consideration.