A number of Arabic and Pashtu interpreters at the terror-war detention center at Guantanamo Bay are under active investigation for omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of detainee interrogations, among other security breaches.
This could taint some of the evidence at the "9/11 trial" in New York and proceedings against other detainees. Remarkably, the Pentagon never cleaned up the "mole infestation" at its highest-security facility after the FBI busted a Muslim spy ring at Gitmo in 2003.
The 2003 probe involved at least two Arabic interpreters with high-level security clearance. Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian native, and former Army linguist Ahmed Mehalba, an Egyptian native, were later convicted of stealing or mishandling classified documents.
Six years later comes a new problem with Muslim personnel who have virtually unfettered access to detainees and intelligence at Gitmo. Professional military security and intelligence officials at Gitmo did the preliminary probe, then prepared a classified summary and are now briefing top officials and members of Congress in Washington.
An active FBI criminal probe is also under way. The possible new spy ring involves several Arabic linguists, some also Egyptian and Syrian immigrants. They're suspected of, among other things:
* Omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of interrogations.
* Slipping notes to detainees inside copies of the Koran.
* Coaching detainees to make allegations of abuse against interrogators.
* Meeting with suspects on the terror watchlist while back in the United States.
Officials say some of the suspected "dirty" linguists -- who met privately in a locked mosque at Gitmo -- have had access to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other high-value al Qaeda detainees.
"Three years of investigations have revealed the presence of pro-jihad/anti-Western activities among the civilian-contractor and military-linguist population serving Joint Task Force Guantanamo," states a copy of a classified Gitmo briefing, prepared in May for the FBI, CIA and Congress' intelligence committees....
Their loyalties, if this is true, were with Islam, not with the United States. That should not be surprising: it is a staple of Islamic thought that loyalty to one's fellow Muslims trumps all other loyalties. "Another spying scandal at Gitmo," by Paul Sperry for the New York Post, December 1 (thanks to Pamela):
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