U.S. National - Reuters


U.S. Muslim Airman Gets Bad-Conduct Discharge

Thu Sep 23,10:10 PM ET Add U.S. National - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Barbara Grady

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (Reuters) - A Syrian-born Muslim airman was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge on Thursday for possession of classified documents and for taking unauthorized photographs while stationed at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


Reuters Photo



Military Judge Col. Barbara Brand also sentenced Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi to the 295 days in prison he had served while awaiting trial. The government had sought the harsher punishment of a dishonorable discharge and four years in prison.


Halabi pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four lesser charges of 16 that remained in the case, including taking two unauthorized photographs at Guantanamo Bay and mailing himself classified documents such as a list of prisoners and maps.


Halabi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had originally been charged with espionage and aiding and abetting the enemy, crimes that carry a possible death penalty. Prosecutors, who suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks during the legal proceedings, had already dropped 14 of the original 30 charges.


Earlier on Thursday the 25 year-old airman, who worked as a translator at Guantanamo, told a military judge he had dreamed since boyhood of becoming an American and begged for "a second chance."


Halabi, accused more than a year ago of espionage at the U.S. prison camp, described a childhood of poverty and close family ties in Syria before asking for forgiveness on the day he was to be sentenced.


"I know that I haven't been perfect, and I haven't always made the right decisions, but I'll tell you that I have never once wanted to do anything that would hurt the United States," he told the military court at Travis Air Force Base north of San Francisco where he had worked as a supply clerk.


'SORRY FOR ALL THE TROUBLE'


"I love this country. That's why I become a citizen. Moving here was a dream come true," Halabi said. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused, and I would like to ask you to give me a second chance."


Halabi's emotion-filled statement before the judge, Air Force Colonel Barbara Brand, lasted 80 minutes and included videos of his hometown, Damascus, as well as pictures of his fiance whom he was trying to rejoin when the military apprehended him as a possible spy in July 2003.


Major Kim London, one of his defense lawyers, said the military's prosecution of Halabi was a case of bias against Muslims -- a charge the military has denied.


"The root cause of all this stemmed from his religion, his funny name, his remote homeland," London told the court. "It was suspicion, your honor, that made people jump to conclusions. He was stereotyped."


Halabi had worked as an Arabic translator at Guantanamo where the U.S. military has imprisoned suspected Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists. He said he liked to "collect things" and that is why he mailed home camp documents. "I still keep homework from high school," he said.


Halabi also spoke of experiencing prejudice from guards at Guantanamo because he spoke Arabic.


"My love for the United States and the Air Force has been, and still is enormous," he said in his first extended public remarks since the case began. "I know the Air Force isn't out to get me, even though it seemed like it at first."


The collapse of the espionage case against Halabi was the latest embarrassment in the Bush administration's legal war on terror.


The military has already dropped charges against a Muslim chaplain, James Yee, who had also been accused of espionage at Guantanamo, as well as an intelligence officer accused of trying to take classified material from the base.