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| Third man held in Guantanamo spy probe | ||||
| 2003-10-01 | ||||
| Edited for new details: An ex-U.S. soldier contracted by the military as an Arabic-language translator has become the third person arrested in connection with an espionage investigation at the U.S. naval base prison for suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, a U.S. citizen of Egyptian descent, was arrested Monday after arriving on a flight from Cairo to Boston where officials searching his bags found a compact disc containing classified information. A military spokeswoman last night said Mr. Mehalba served as an enlisted man in the Army for a short period in 2001 but was discharged without reaching a rank above private first class. That explains his hiring as a translator, they saw he was ex-military and didn’t look much deeper. According to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI yesterday, when authorities apprehended Mr. Mehalba at Boston’s Logan International Airport, he told them he was contracted to work as a linguist for the Army and showed a Guantanamo Bay identification badge. It was not immediately clear yesterday when Mr. Mehalba worked at the prison camp or what sort of access he may have had to classified materials there. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers began conducting a routine inspection of Mr. Mehalba’s luggage on Monday after his flight arrived from Cairo, via Milan, Italy. When a further inspection turned up a case of suspicious compact discs including one reportedly containing the classified information, Mr. Mehalba was arrested by agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force. Wonder why they were so suspicious of the CD’s?
Sure you did. Better have a bill of sale and the name of who sold you the computer. "He claimed he could not have downloaded secret files from the government computers," the complaint states. This next part is brand new information. The 12-page criminal complaint also makes reference to the December 2001 case of Army Spc. Deborah M. Gephardt, a student at the Army’s Counter-Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., who had been arrested for vehicle theft at that time. That’ll mess up your career. Mr. Mehalba reported for the interrogator course at the Army’s intelligence school at Fort Huachuca in November 2001 and was discharged in May 2001 when he failed to complete the course, according to Pat Dillingham, a spokeswoman at the fort. This was his brief Army career, he gets booted in 2001 for failing interrogator school, and gets hired later as a translator working with interrogators. Good move, guys.
Hummm The complaint also said Mr. Mehalba told authorities upon his arrest that he and Spc. Gephardt "were in the Army together" and that she was his girlfriend at Fort Huachuca. I think somebody needs to have a long talk with Debby. Mr. Mehalba "once told Gephardt that [his] uncle was an intelligence officer for the Egyptian Army," the complaint said. I see a pattern, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a intelligence specialist. Got kicked out after failing the interrogator portion of the course. Saw a chance to get back in as a civilian when we put out a call for Arabic speakers to act as translators. This guy sounds like an agent.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #13 Some more background material, rearanged by date: Born in Egypt, he immigrated to the United States in the early 1990s and served in the Army as a private until his discharge in 2001. In November 2000, he attended "a human intelligence collection and interrogation course" at the U.S. Army's Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca as an Army private, fort spokeswoman Tanja Linton said. His lawyer said he received an honorable discharge. A public records search shows that Mehalba has a Massachusetts driver's license and lives in Salem, Mass. The Associated Press reported that he has worked as a Boston taxicab driver and applied for a job as a Logan gate guard two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but was turned down. Mehalba's attorney, Michael Andrews, said Mehalba had been visiting family in Egypt and had worked "off and on" as an Army contract linguist at Guantanamo for nearly a year. Mehalba "was on leave and returning to Guantanamo Bay when he was stopped in Boston," said Army Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, Camp Delta's spokeswoman. Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle in Washington said the inspectors at Logan had received no prior alert on Mehalba, and he was stopped for a spot check when he arrived on a flight from Cairo via Milan, Italy. "This is one of those things that was just 'bingo.' It was routine," he said. "And it's, knock on wood, a success story." According to the affidavit by FBI agent John Van Kleeff, customs inspectors were aware of recent news coverage of security breaches at Guantanamo and subjected Mehalba to a search after he told them he worked at the prison camp. He showed them a Department of Defense identification card and another ID card from Guantanamo. The affidavit said the inspectors became suspicious because one of the CDs was labeled "Backup 3 for MO'S profile." After they opened the disc and discovered what appeared to be classified information, they called the FBI. Logan gate guard, hummm. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-1 4:43:32 PM |
| #12 "Have another cup of sweet mint giggle juice, effendi..." |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2003-10-1 4:36:00 PM |
| #11 Our not-so-cunning linguist, Ahmed Fathy Mehalba. He will be playing rock hockey in the big arena for a long time, after they extract a few thousand neurons worth of intel. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-10-1 3:32:33 PM |
| #10 "Mr "No Tradecraft" al-Pyramidi tried to sneak back in the country WITH the incriminating goods instead of ditching them in some Cairo cathole." Guess he got kicked out of intel school before they got to that part. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-1 3:18:59 PM |
| #9 Wonder what contractor she's working for? Leavenworth license plate co. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-10-1 3:05:05 PM |
| #8 Let's rerun the tape for my favorite part, shall we? U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers began conducting a routine inspection of Mr. Mehalba’s luggage on Monday after his flight arrived from Cairo, via Milan, Italy. When a further inspection turned up a case of suspicious compact discs including one reportedly containing the classified information, Mr. Mehalba was arrested by agents... Let me translate (pun intended): after meeting his handler in Egypt, Mr "No Tradecraft" al-Pyramidi tried to sneak back in the country WITH the incriminating goods instead of ditching them in some Cairo cathole. Smooth move Tut boy. |
| Posted by: TerrorHunter4Ever 2003-10-1 2:54:25 PM |
| #7 Just a little more: The affidavit says Mehalba acknowledged that an uncle was an official with an Egyptian army intelligence unit. Drop in to visit your uncle while you were home visiting dad? It also mentions a case from 2001, when Mehalba was a private first class studying interrogation techniques at the Army intelligence school at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, and when his then-girlfriend, Deborah Gephart, who had the same rank, was studying to be a counterintelligence agent. Gephart was arrested for allegedly stealing a car, and a search of her home yielded a stolen laptop and a classified counterintelligence training manual. She was later discharged under less than honorable conditions, the affidavit says. Gephart could not be reached yesterday. Wonder what contractor she's working for? |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-1 1:45:21 PM |
| #6 Ah hah! Here's why they got interested in the CDs: Mehalba was returning home from a trip to Egypt, where he visited his father, when he was stopped by officers with the customs and border protection unit of the Department of Homeland Security. They noted that he carried U.S. military identification and asked Mehalba what was on the 132 computer discs in his luggage, according to an affidavit presented yesterday at a hearing in federal court in Boston. "Only music and videos," he replied. The inspectors then put one that bore an official-looking designation into a disc player and found that it contained documents designated "secret" concerning the base in Cuba, officials said. Standard Form 711 (1-87) EF 1-96, official US government CD label, required on all government data discs, lists content and security classification. Not for private use, as soon as they saw them, and he said they were music cds, the bells went off. Mehalba, a former Army private first class who left the military in 2001, is employed by a San Diego-based contractor, Titan Corp., which supplies translators for Army interrogators questioning the 660 prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison, officials said. There they go outsourcing again. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-1 1:30:31 PM |
| #5 --Mr. Mehalba reported for the interrogator course at the Army’s intelligence school at Fort Huachuca in November 2001 and was discharged in May 2001 when he failed to complete the course, according to Pat Dillingham, a spokeswoman at the fort.-- ??? Hired in November 01 and fired in May of 01??? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-1 12:58:22 PM |
| #4 Obviously, they knew what they were looking for on this guy at Customs. I bet he got ratted by a detainee. This leads to the question of whether: 1. One or more interrogators were jihadi's or 2. How the linguists got private access to prisoners or 3. Whether the classified information was from the interrogations only but did not include information passed from detainees to linguists privately. |
| Posted by: Superhose 2003-10-1 12:55:22 PM |
| #3 Steve White, I think there used to be a small exchange there. It is probably much bigger now. Haven't been there in 10 years. |
| Posted by: Superhose 2003-10-1 12:49:33 PM |
| #2 After telling investigators the discs contained personal documents, he said that "he bought the CDs in Guantanamo Bay, that they were purchased as blanks, that [he] also purchased a computer in Guantanamo Bay and that he downloaded information from the computer onto the discs." I didn't know that Gitmo had a CompUSA. Where did he buy the computer? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-10-1 12:43:34 PM |
| #1 More details coming out: The latest man arrested was identified as Egyptian-American Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, 31. He is a civilian who formerly served in the Army and twice started but failed to complete a military intelligence course to become an interrogator, two defense officials said on condition of anonymity. Mehalba was medically discharged from the Army in May 2001 and later hired by a private defense contractor to be a translator at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, they said. Officials said they had no further information on why he didn't complete the courses, nor what the medical discharge was for. Officials said they had been watching Mehalba and that still others were being investigated. The arrest of a second translator raised new concern about how the military had checked the dozens of translators needed to help with interrogations of al-Qaida and Taliban suspects whose native languages include Arabic, Pashto, Dari and Uighur. At a brief hearing Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mehalba entered no plea to a charge of making false statements and was detained pending another hearing scheduled for Oct. 8. He could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted of the charge. Mehalba, wearing jeans and an orange golf shirt, said nothing during the hearing, except to tell the judge that he could not afford his own attorney. Michael Andrews, the attorney who represented Mehalba at Tuesday's hearing, said, "He intends to vigorously defend himself against these charges." Mehalba was arrested Monday at Boston's Logan International Airport after authorities found classified information in his possession, officials said Tuesday. Dennis Murphy, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Mehalba is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Egypt who had flown Monday to Boston from Cairo, with a stop in Milan, Italy. He was carrying 132 compact discs, which he said contained only music and videos, according to a government affidavit filed in court. But agents checked his bags and found at least one that appeared to contain unspecified classified information, some of it marked "SECRET," the affidavit said. Mehalba denied knowing how the information got on the disc, saying he bought the discs in Guantanamo "as blanks," the affidavit said. Defense Department officials said Mehalba worked at Guantanamo for San Diego-based defense contractor Titan Corp. Titan spokesman Wil Williams confirmed Mehalba worked for the firm but said he was on leave when the arrest occurred. Some candidates for the translator jobs were found through the Internet, newspaper ads, language associations and word-of-mouth, Williams had said in June 2002. They underwent health checks and extensive criminal record checks, and many underwent additional national security clearances and polygraph exams, he said. Linguists and other experts on Tuesday stressed the importance of full investigations. "They've been backed up for years on security clearances ... and it was made worse after Sept. 11, because there was this fast rush to get more analysts and more people who had backgrounds that might be useful," said Dan Smith, a retired Army colonel who specialized in intelligence during his 26 years in service. Let's hope they were watching him and aren't just saying so to cover up. It would explain them searching him so closely at the airport. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-1 11:22:06 AM |