Airman accused of terror spying

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A U.S. Air Force enlisted man has become the second service member to be accused of espionage at the U.S. naval base prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he translated interrogations of Arabic-speaking Taliban and al Qaeda terror suspects.

Also yesterday, a Pentagon policy document revealed that the military appointed its Muslim chaplains based on suggestions or training from three U.S. Muslim groups, each of which was linked to radical elements of Islam.

The Pentagon announced the charges against Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi, while it also investigated whether the prison's lone Muslim chaplain, Army Capt. James J. Yee, committed espionage and aided the enemy. Officials say they also are investigating whether any link exists between Senior Airman Halabi and Capt. Yee.

Officials said Senior Airman Halabi was arrested July 23, nearly two months before Capt. Yee's Sept. 10 apprehension. The Air Force imprisoned the airman at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. He had been assigned to Travis Air Force Base in the same state.

The Air Force charged him with five counts of espionage, three counts of aiding the enemy, nine counts of giving false statements to interrogators, 11 counts of failing to obey a lawful order and one count of bank fraud.

Normal military judicial procedure would be for Senior Airman Halabi to get a pretrial Article 32 hearing. An Air Force convening authority would decide afterward whether to court-martial him, administer nonjudicial punishment or dismiss the case.

One of the three Muslim groups involved in training or approving chaplains is the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va. U.S. government agents raided that group last year as part of a sweep of organizations suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. The graduate school trains would-be military chaplains. The other two groups endorse the candidates.

The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council in Arlington sponsored Capt. Yee's chaplaincy.

Capt. Yee, a West Point graduate, resigned from the Army in the early 1990s and traveled to Damascus, Syria, to receive training in Arabic and traditional Islamic beliefs. He returned to the United States, rejoined the Army and was posted to Guantanamo in November.