Posted on 10/05/2003 6:28:20 PM PDT by Prince Charles
A line-by-line review has been ordered of every interrogation at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp involving an air force interpreter suspected of espionage and treason.
Intelligence officers face the nightmare prospect that Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian-born linguist who served at the camp in Cuba for eight months, may have edited or deliberately distorted information given by al-Qa'eda and Taliban suspects during interrogation sessions.
Tapes of those interrogations - some lasting hours - are being freshly translated.
"If the subject answered 'five' and [Halabi] told interrogators he said 'four', then you have a problem," said one official.
Senior Airman Halabi, 24, faces 32 counts of espionage and aiding the enemy. He is accused of trying to channel classified information to Syria and attempting to smuggle two handwritten notes and more than 180 e-mail messages from detainees to a third party overseas.
Three members of the Guantanamo Bay guard force have been arrested in recent weeks, sparking fears of a major security breach.
Two are from the military: Halabi and Capt Yousef Yee, a Muslim US army chaplain found in possession of classified papers, including lists of detainees and interrogators.
Ahmed Mehalba, a former army enlisted man working as a civilian translator, was arrested at Boston airport last week, accused of lying to customs agents when he denied a compact disc in his luggage contained classified data.
Three other people are being investigated, including a member of the US navy.
Only Halabi has been charged so far.
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