Guantanamo spy cases falter

Last September, top officials of the US Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told a military judge in Florida that the prison's Muslim chaplain, Army Captain James Yee, would soon be charged with mutiny, sedition, espionage, and aiding the enemy -- crimes that could lead to his execution.

Based on those allegations, Yee was held in solitary confinement in a Navy brig in South Carolina for 76 days. But authorities never charged him with any of those offenses. Instead, Yee will face much less serious charges, such as adultery and mishandling classified materials, at a hearing at Fort Benning, Ga., scheduled for Feb. 4.

While Yee was being detained, Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad I. Halabi, who worked as an Arabic translator at Guantanamo Bay, was in solitary confinement 3,000 miles away, held in California on charges of espionage and aiding the enemy. The most serious of those allegations have been withdrawn as well.

The men's lawyers and some specialists on military law say the prosecutions of Yee and Halabi have been riddled with inconsistencies and oddities that cast doubt on the government's original fears that a spy ring was operating in the high-security prison for those captured in the global war on terrorism.

"I find it difficult to believe professional prosecutors are proceeding with these two cases in this manner," said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor who teaches the law of war at Georgetown University. "The ineptitude at each step of the proceeding is amazing." Even now, prosecutors have not made final determinations that some of the documents Halabi was charged with possessing were classified -- and, if they were, what level of security applied to them. So his lead civilian attorney, Donald G. Rehkopf Jr., said he has only a hazy picture of why his client was arrested last July.

A similar review of documents in the Yee case was finished only in recent days.

In an unusual episode last month, military investigators raided offices used by Halabi's military lawyers at an Air Force base in California, temporarily seizing a computer and copying its hard drive in a search for evidence against the airman.

Rehkopf protested against the search in a letter to Air Force officials, calling it "bizarre" and "a conscious disregard of the attorney-client relationship."

"We are imploring the senior leadership of the Air Force to get this case under control," the letter said.

The Air Force has declined to comment on the case of the Syrian-born Halabi, 25, who is accused of illegally possessing letters from detainees and other documents about the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Officials at the US Southern Command, which oversees Guantanamo Bay, say they are demonstrating caution and fairness in their treatment of Yee. "We've taken a methodical, well-thought-out approach in the case," said Colonel Bill Costello, a Southern Command spokesman.

Yee, who graduated from West Point and converted to Islam, faces two counts of mishandling classified material related to papers found on him when he was arrested in Florida after a flight from Guantanamo Bay last Sept. 10. He also has been charged with failing to obey an order or regulation; making a false official statement; conduct unbecoming an officer, for allegedly downloading pornographic material onto his laptop computer; and adultery with a female officer at Guantanamo Bay.

Halabi had been charged last summer with 30 offenses, including espionage, aiding the enemy, and other allegations based on searches of his Guantanamo Bay computer. But in the fall, 13 charges were dropped, including the most serious ones, which could have led to the death penalty. He still faces charges of mishandling classified material and attempted espionage involving an alleged plan to pass information to someone in Syria.

In the Yee and Halabi cases, prosecutors have handed over batches of papers to defense lawyers, only to demand their return. In each case, prosecutors said the documents had mistakenly been designated as unclassified. Officials also provided other papers to the defense, saying they were classified but releasable, then later retracted that description, saying the documents were unclassified, defense attorneys said.