Army drops charges against Guantanamo colonel
WASHINGTON -- The US Army has dropped all charges against a colonel who served as an intelligence officer at the Guantanamo prison and had been accused of trying to take classified material from the base, officials said yesterday.
Army Reserve Colonel Jackie Duane Farr was the highest ranking of three US service members charged in 2003 in connection with suspected security breaches at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 585 foreign terrorism suspects.
All charges also have been dropped against Army Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain who ministered to prisoners, while the prosecution case against Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi, an Arabic language translator, has run into numerous troubles.
The Army had charged Farr with disobeying an order by transporting classified material without the proper security container and with making a false statement during an investigation, said Army Major Hank McIntire, a spokesman at the Guantanamo base.
Army Brigadier General Jay Hood, commander of the Guantanamo prison, imposed ''nonjudicial punishment" against Farr in an administrative proceeding on Aug. 27, McIntire said.
The charges were dropped ''to more quickly resolve the matter to serve the best interests of the military and Colonel Farr," McIntire said, adding no further action would be taken against Farr.
McIntire declined to disclose the nature of the punishment given to Farr.
Farr, who had directed the intelligence-gathering operation for US personnel who interrogated Guantanamo prisoners, had faced up to seven years in prison if convicted.
The Army has approved Yee's resignation from the military effective next January and will grant him an honorable discharge, said Eugene Fidell, Yee's lawyer.
Military prosecutors have dropped 14 of 30 charges brought against Halabi. Hearings on motions before his planned court-martial were scheduled for Tuesday and then yesterday of this week but have been pushed back to Monday.
