A Syrian-born US airman accused of espionage at the US base in Guantanamo, Cuba, has resumed work as a supply clerk at a California Air Force base after nearly 10 months in jail, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
A military judge at Travis Air Force base released Ahmad Al Halabi last week after complaining about the way the prosecution was presenting evidence in the case.
The defense made public a 74-page statement on Tuesday suggesting sloppy investigative work by the US military.
"He's living in a dormitory and he's working as a supply clerk at Travis in the Aerial Port Squadron, which is one of the larger and busier squadrons," attorney Donald Rehkopf said.
Even as he resumed his job supporting a US military at war in Iraq, Halabi still faces charges of spying and misusing classified information.
He faces life in prison if convicted of charges that include carrying jail maps, letters and other documents from Guantanamo Bay and sending e-mail on behalf of prisoners while a translator at Guantanamo Bay, where the US holds suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
His defense says the prosecution has been sloppy and overzealous in the spy case, according to a sworn statement Rehkopf released from an Air Force staff sergeant who helped translate Arabic documents.
"I really didn't see anything that Senior Airman al Halabi was involved in anything, you know, illegal or that was against our government," Suzan Sultan said in a statement under oath to defense lawyers on April 27.
Sultan said she felt pressured to come up with translations that would support the prosecution's case.
"And he [an investigator] would say `Well, this word means this, so it must have something to do with al-Qaeda or it must have to do with something to go against whatever,'" she said. "I just felt kind of pressured to come up with translations."
Later she added: "I felt they wanted me to tell them `yeah this is encouraging terrorism' or `this is al-Qaeda.'"
Sultan also described the joy investigators felt when a box of Halabi's possessions arrived that they hoped would prove the "smoking gun" in the case. She said they removed the evidence without gloves and even opened up beers to mark the occasion.
"I'm not an investigator but I watch TV and ... and you know the evidence should be handled wearing gloves," she said. "It looked like something was done wrong."
The Air Force declined to discuss the details of the case.
"It would be inappropriate for us to comment on specific assertions made in verbal defense motions before they are formalized in writing to the court and responded to by the government," said Senior Master Sergeant Dan Murphy of Air Mobility Command. "Those are matters properly presented to and resolved by the military judge."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in