WASHINGTON, 25 September 2003 — A US Air Force translator is the second Muslim-American military member accused of spying at the US naval base prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he served as an Arabic translator for interrogations with Taleban and Al-Qaeda terror suspects. US military officials said yesterday that Senior Airman Ahmad Al-Halabi, 24, is accused of spying for Syria, and is suspected of obtaining secret information about the navy jail and terrorism suspects.
The Pentagon also announced it will continue its investigation of the prison’s only Muslim chaplain, Army Capt. James (Yousef) Yee. Officials have yet to determine whether any link exists between Senior Airman Al-Halabi and Capt. Yee.
The arrests, both of which occurred within a few days, have caused an uproar among some politicians and conservatives, who are calling for closer scrutiny of Muslim chaplains and Muslim-Americans working within the armed forces.
“Here you have a guy who was trained in Syria, which is on the US list of states sponsoring terrorism, and he comes back over here and is commissioned as an officer,” Michael Waller, a researcher for the pro-military Washington-based Center for Security Policy, said about Capt. James Yee, who was arrested late last week. The group has warned against the possibility of radical Islamists infiltrating US institutions. “It is something like this that should tell the Pentagon that its own security policies need to be reassessed,” Miller told journalists yesterday.
Those with political axes to grind, meanwhile, are taking advantage of the growing Muslim “fear factor” in the US by causing further confusion and anxiety. Most disconcerting, perhaps, is that some Muslim-American organizations have jumped on the bandwagon but there are others calling for a transparent trial.
“We hope to see all the facts out in the open, and there should be no secret trials or evidence,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
“Our fear is that the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ may become used as automatic suspects by those who would like to exploit this incident to attack Islam and Muslims. And there are political pundits who are trying to achieve this.”
Asked if they had been in contact with the State Department or Pentagon about these incidents, Awad said: “We’re trying to reach out to certain agencies to make sure that they understand we’re watching the process. We don’t want this to become a campaign against Muslims in the military, or to undermine their safety, or even question their love and commitment to the country.”
