US military translator charged with security breach

25 September 2003
A US airman on 23 September was charged with attempting to hand classified information to Syrian officials, US military authorities announced. Ahmed al-Halabi, an interpreter at Camp X-ray, the US government's detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been detained on 32 criminal charges, which include supplying details on Syrian citizens being held at the camp to Syrian officials. Al-Halabi, who had worked at the camp for nine months, is also accused of planning to give 180 written messages from detainees at the camp to a man who would then travel to Syria.

Information collected by Al-Halabi includes details of flights to and from the Guantanamo base; names, numbers and cell numbers of prisoners; a map of the base; and secret documents from the base, reported AP. Al-Halabi could face the death penalty if convicted.

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