How many worms are in the apple,...

[SEATJERKER]

...or is it? How many fleas are on the dog???,...

...Now you'll have to pardon this dumb Northern boy cause I ain't all that right, never was, never will be, but my momma raised me to keep a keen eye out, and try, and "look ahead" at the freight train bearing down on you, and that's where I feel this war was headed off before it was get's out of hand, yes it was right to go after EVERY SINGLE TERRORIST ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET,...

..And for all we know, there still could be operatives just waiting for their opportunity to "contribute" to their war against western civilization,...

......I waiting to see the out come of the two "possible/alledgedly operatives that were at Gitmo,...

..."sometimes you have to scratch a few off in the cold, or cut them out to the core, but either way, they must go,...

...or we will,...



Updated 8:37 PM ET January 13, 2004


By Adam Tanner

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (Reuters) - Amid defense complaints that no case had been made against their client, a judge on Tuesday gave prosecutors a Feb. 25 deadline to present key evidence against a Syrian-American airman accused of spying while working as a translator in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi, who faces life in prison if convicted, has been charged with espionage related to his work at the base where the United States maintains a prison camp for suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members.

Halabi, who has denied the charges, was arrested in Florida in July and accused of carrying jail maps, letters and other sensitive documents from Guantanamo.

His lawyers complained after the arraignment hearing at Travis Air Force base north of San Francisco that the prosecutor has hidden a weak case by classifying the evidence.

"They don't want anybody to see anything at all about this case," Donald Rehkopf, Halabi's civilian attorney, told Reuters in an interview. "I have seen no evidence."

He said prosecutors "went crazy with their rubber stamp" and classified a picture of his fiance as secret."

Halabi's military attorney, James Key, said he was not able to "discuss the nuts and bolts of the case" with Rehkopf because of the secrecy. "It's very frustrating," he said.

The mild-mannered judge, Col. Barbara Brand, expressed concern about the slow pace of the proceedings.

"This young man has been in pretrial confinement since 25 July," she said, setting a Feb. 25 deadline for prosecutors to sort out evidence that could be presented.

"Some parts are under investigation," a military official told Reuters. "Some parts are classified," said John Kellogg, deputy staff judge advocate of the Air Mobility Command. Kellogg declined to discuss the charges in detail.

Rehkopf, a former airman who specializes in military justice, said the case is an example of justice gone mad.

"The big picture shows paranoia to the extreme and prosecutorial overkill to the extreme," he said in an telephone interview after not attending the morning court martial.

"There is absolutely no credible evidence that al Halabi is involved in any nefarious scheme, you know, to spy or do anything adverse to the United States."

ARABIC BARRED

Halabi wore a dark blue airman dress uniform. His hair was closely shaved, and he stood at rigid attention when Brand entered the courtroom. Halabi, 24, exchanged only a few accented words with the judge during the half-hour proceeding.

In December the U.S. military dropped three of the charges, including one that he brought baklava pastries to prisoners.

He still faces 17 counts, including espionage, failure to obey an order, retaining documents without authority, making false statements, and executing a fraudulent credit application.

Attorney Key said Halabi moved to the United States from Syria when he was 16 or 17 to join his father, who worked as a cook in Dearborn, Michigan.

He joined the military in 2000, and gained U.S. citizenship the following year. Most recently Halabi had been earning $1,665.30 a month for his military work.

"This has been very weighty on him, very difficult on him," Key said. "He actually has been under order by the government not so speak Arabic, which has made it extremely difficult for him to talk to his fiance back in Syria, who does not speak English."

His attorneys said the charges against Halabi that he was in contact with the Syrian Embassy stems from correspondence to return to Syria to wed his fiance there.

The trial is scheduled to begin on April 27.

Halabi is one of four men, including another Arabic translator and a Muslim chaplain, charged in connection with their work at Guantanamo.

A separate hearing for Muslim Army chaplain Capt. James Yee -- whom Halabi knew in Guantanamo -- is due to resume on Jan. 19. Yee is accused of mishandling classified material and engaging in other misconduct at Guantanamo.




...by all means, present the evidence, and convict, and sentence, or set them free, but at least we have a court system here that is willing to balance justice,...

...