JAG CENTRAL

Things are not looking good for the second Guantanamo espionage court martial trial, even after the Army mishandled the first one against Chaplain (CPT) Yee so badly that he was eventually honorably discharged without so much as a letter of reprimand. The bad news comes from this story in the Vallejo Times-Herald, which has been covering the story from nearby Travis AFB, CA:

Charging everything from investigatory incompetence to prosecutorial misconduct, defense attorneys for a young Travis Air Force Base enlisted man facing espionage charges hammered the prosecution Tuesday during six hours of pretrial motions.

Senior Airman Ahmad I. Al Halabi, 25, still faces 17 charges ranging from espionage and disobeying orders to improperly transporting classified information, photographing facilities in and around Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unauthorized possession of secret documents and credit card fraud.

Appearing before Military Trial Judge Col. Barbara Goodwin Brand at Travis on Tuesday, civilian defense attorney Donald G. Rehkopf Jr. argued for dismissal of the case on the grounds that Air Force Office of Special Investigations personnel had improperly handled evidence in the case.

Rehkopf further charged that prosecutors intentionally had withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, including known translation errors in a letter used to prove supposedly illicit ties between Al Halabi and the Syrian government and a spurious interpretation of a common Muslim symbol.

"The government did not have a clue as to what was going on," Rehkopf charged.

One problem was that an interpreter admittedly misidentified a Muslim character that the accused wrote:

The letter issue surfaced when former U.S. Air Force staff sergeant and translator Suzan Sultan told prosecutors that there appeared to be a reference to the country of Qatar in a letter to Al Halabi from the Syrian government.

This apparently led to the theory that Al Halabi's planned trip to Syria to marry his fiance last year was a cover for a secret trip to Qatar.

Testifying Tuesday, Sultan said she later realized she'd make a mistake and that "qatar" could also mean a generic "homeland" in Arabic.

Sultan said she told military prosecutor Capt. Dennis Kaw about the errors, but he said to "forget about it" without telling defense attorneys.

But wait, there's more...the hits just keep on coming in this trial. Shoddy investigative work by investigators accused of sexual misconduct enter the mix:

Rehkopf further charged that OSI investigators had botched a search of a package in Al Halabi's mail, drinking beer and opening the parcel, handling its contents without gloves, then closing and reopening the box so they could properly document their find.

The prosecution took yet another blow Tuesday when it was revealed that one of the principal OSI investigators on the case, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Marc A. Palmosina, had been named in a complaint charging him with multiple counts of child molestation and failing to properly safeguard classified documents.

Responding to defense charges, military prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. (Navy) Robert Crow said there was no effort to cover up evidence.

Maybe...but the convergence of sexual misconduct, mishandling of evidence, and mistranslations definitely puts the government's theory of the case in doubt. I think it's absolutely ironic that both the accused and the agent investigating the accused are both charged with mishandling classified information. Prediction: look for the Article 32 hearing officer to recommend that the accused stand trial, since the standard to have charges go forward at this stage is so low. However, the government faces an uphill battle at trial.