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American Morning

Enemies Within?

Aired September 24, 2003 - 07:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the investigation of suspected al Qaeda sympathizers in the ranks of the U.S. military. An Air Force translator working with detainees at Guantanamo Bay is charged with espionage and aiding the enemy. Word of his arrest follows news that an Army chaplain and counselor to inmates at GTMO is also suspected of spying.
To the Pentagon and Barbara Starr for the latest on this and what we might be learning on this still developing story.

Barbara -- good morning there.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

Well, senior airman Ahmad al Halabi indeed is charged with espionage and aiding the enemy, apparently his native Syria. Now, he worked as an Air Force translator at Guantanamo Bay, the camp where more than 600 detainees are being held, many of them suspected al Qaeda.

Al Halabi was arrested on July 24, and is now being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California facing more than 30 charges, including espionage, aiding the enemy, false statements, bank fraud and failing to obey orders.

There is a six-page charge sheet by the Air Force detailing all of this. It says that he attempted to e-mail to Syria names of detainees, detailed information about the camp, over 180 written notes from the detainees, and information about military flights in and out of the base.

Perhaps the only light note in all of this, he is also charged with trying to provide them with unauthorized food, specifically baklava pastry.

But it's actually quite serious, of course, because one of the charges against him indicates that he did not report unauthorized communications between detainees and other military members -- this perhaps hinting that the military's real concern that there are other people involved in inappropriate and even illegal activities at Guantanamo Bay.

And, of course, this follows the arrest of Captain James Yee, the Islamic Army chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. Sources say more arrests may indeed be coming -- Bill.

HEMMER: Barbara, thank you. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

More now on this still developing story. Retired Army Colonel Pat Lang is a former chief Middle East analyst with the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA. He's with us now back here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you, Colonel. Nice to see you again.

COLONEL PAT LANG, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Good morning.

HEMMER: What are you to make of this news that we're getting now out of Cuba?

Well, in a very strange way, I think we probably brought this on ourselves through many decades of under-investment in the kind of education and training of U.S. military personnel in the Arabic language and in the culture of the Middle East. These are esoteric subjects that take a long time to prepare service people to be any good at, and we've only ever produced very few people of this kind over the years.

So, in the crisis that emerged after 9/11, all kinds of people were swept up and used as translators or brought into the Chaplain Corps or things of that kind, whose real qualifications were their enthusiasm for the subject and the culture, or the fact that they happened to be immigrants from that place.

Arabic is so difficult that unless you study this for years and years, you're not very good at it and you can't work at it. And so, the temptation to use people whose only qualification was their sort of natal familiarity with the language and that sort of thing has been overwhelming and has made us vulnerable.

HEMMER: So, you're saying the government's program has not fully developed?

LANG: Oh, I think that's true. The Army and some of the other services for many years have had small programs to train area specialists in these parts of the world that are really dangerous and difficult to know about, but they've been very small. And there is nothing, like the number of people available, who are really well- vetted and can be completely relied on that there should be. And as a result, there are a lot of people being used who are really rather dubious, I think.

HEMMER: Does it also tell you that when it comes to privacy and privilege or the detainees, it truly means privacy and privilege if they're able to have these confidential conversations and the possibility that documents could be exchanged between each other?

LANG: Well, as someone who speaks Arabic, I can assure you that a translator or a chaplain who has a good knowledge of the language can sit in the presence of half a dozen other Americans who do not have that capability and can converse with these detainees about any subject they want, and nobody will have the slightest idea what they're talking about. So, I don't know how that could be avoided. HEMMER: Would it surprise you, in a word or two, if more arrests are forthcoming, as Barbara Starr points out at the Pentagon?

LANG: I would be quite surprised if there are not more arrests in fact, because it appears to me that there -- just from the externals of what is known that there is some sort of espionage cell that has probably been functioning down there. And the government has broken that open now, and they're going to pull it up by the roots.

HEMMER: Thank you, Colonel Pat Lang in D.C., we'll talk again.

LANG: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired September 24, 2003 - 07:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the investigation of suspected al Qaeda sympathizers in the ranks of the U.S. military. An Air Force translator working with detainees at Guantanamo Bay is charged with espionage and aiding the enemy. Word of his arrest follows news that an Army chaplain and counselor to inmates at GTMO is also suspected of spying.
To the Pentagon and Barbara Starr for the latest on this and what we might be learning on this still developing story.

Barbara -- good morning there.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

Well, senior airman Ahmad al Halabi indeed is charged with espionage and aiding the enemy, apparently his native Syria. Now, he worked as an Air Force translator at Guantanamo Bay, the camp where more than 600 detainees are being held, many of them suspected al Qaeda.

Al Halabi was arrested on July 24, and is now being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California facing more than 30 charges, including espionage, aiding the enemy, false statements, bank fraud and failing to obey orders.

There is a six-page charge sheet by the Air Force detailing all of this. It says that he attempted to e-mail to Syria names of detainees, detailed information about the camp, over 180 written notes from the detainees, and information about military flights in and out of the base.

Perhaps the only light note in all of this, he is also charged with trying to provide them with unauthorized food, specifically baklava pastry.

But it's actually quite serious, of course, because one of the charges against him indicates that he did not report unauthorized communications between detainees and other military members -- this perhaps hinting that the military's real concern that there are other people involved in inappropriate and even illegal activities at Guantanamo Bay.

And, of course, this follows the arrest of Captain James Yee, the Islamic Army chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. Sources say more arrests may indeed be coming -- Bill.

HEMMER: Barbara, thank you. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

More now on this still developing story. Retired Army Colonel Pat Lang is a former chief Middle East analyst with the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA. He's with us now back here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you, Colonel. Nice to see you again.

COLONEL PAT LANG, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Good morning.

HEMMER: What are you to make of this news that we're getting now out of Cuba?

Well, in a very strange way, I think we probably brought this on ourselves through many decades of under-investment in the kind of education and training of U.S. military personnel in the Arabic language and in the culture of the Middle East. These are esoteric subjects that take a long time to prepare service people to be any good at, and we've only ever produced very few people of this kind over the years.

So, in the crisis that emerged after 9/11, all kinds of people were swept up and used as translators or brought into the Chaplain Corps or things of that kind, whose real qualifications were their enthusiasm for the subject and the culture, or the fact that they happened to be immigrants from that place.

Arabic is so difficult that unless you study this for years and years, you're not very good at it and you can't work at it. And so, the temptation to use people whose only qualification was their sort of natal familiarity with the language and that sort of thing has been overwhelming and has made us vulnerable.

HEMMER: So, you're saying the government's program has not fully developed?

LANG: Oh, I think that's true. The Army and some of the other services for many years have had small programs to train area specialists in these parts of the world that are really dangerous and difficult to know about, but they've been very small. And there is nothing, like the number of people available, who are really well- vetted and can be completely relied on that there should be. And as a result, there are a lot of people being used who are really rather dubious, I think.

HEMMER: Does it also tell you that when it comes to privacy and privilege or the detainees, it truly means privacy and privilege if they're able to have these confidential conversations and the possibility that documents could be exchanged between each other?

LANG: Well, as someone who speaks Arabic, I can assure you that a translator or a chaplain who has a good knowledge of the language can sit in the presence of half a dozen other Americans who do not have that capability and can converse with these detainees about any subject they want, and nobody will have the slightest idea what they're talking about. So, I don't know how that could be avoided. HEMMER: Would it surprise you, in a word or two, if more arrests are forthcoming, as Barbara Starr points out at the Pentagon?

LANG: I would be quite surprised if there are not more arrests in fact, because it appears to me that there -- just from the externals of what is known that there is some sort of espionage cell that has probably been functioning down there. And the government has broken that open now, and they're going to pull it up by the roots.

HEMMER: Thank you, Colonel Pat Lang in D.C., we'll talk again.

LANG: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.