Spies at Guantanamo

Michelle Malkin posted on this today and I think it's worth noting, so be sure to read her post here.

She points to this New York Post article by Paul Sperry, who is the author of Muslim Mafia; there is also a similar piece in the World Net Daily posted November 6.

Sperry writes:

A number of Arabic and Pashtu interpreters at the terror-war detention center at Guantanamo Bay are under active investigation for omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of detainee interrogations, among other security breaches. This could taint some of the evidence at the "9/11 trial" in New York and proceedings against other detainees.

Remarkably, the Pentagon never cleaned up the "mole infestation" at its highest-security facility after the FBI busted a Muslim spy ring at Gitmo in 2003.

The 2003 probe involved at least two Arabic interpreters with high-level security clearance. Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian native, and former Army linguist Ahmed Mehalba, an Egyptian native, were later convicted of stealing or mishandling classified documents.

Six years later comes a new problem with Muslim personnel who have virtually unfettered access to detainees and intelligence at Gitmo. Professional military security and intelligence officials at Gitmo did the preliminary probe, then prepared a classified summary and are now briefing top officials and members of Congress in Washington. An active FBI criminal probe is also under way.

The possible new spy ring involves several Arabic linguists, some also Egyptian and Syrian immigrants. They're suspected of, among other things:

* Omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of interrogations.

* Slipping notes to detainees inside copies of the Koran.

* Coaching detainees to make allegations of abuse against interrogators.

* Meeting with suspects on the terror watchlist while back in the United States.

Officials say some of the suspected "dirty" linguists -- who met privately in a locked mosque at Gitmo -- have had access to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other high-value al Qaeda detainees.

Note that Sperry points out that this sort of thing happened once before in 2003. How is it that we are so lax and off our game that it's occurring again? Sperry suggests that there is absolutely no telling what information has been transmitted.

The fly in the ointment, to me, is Eric Holder. Last month Holder spoke in Detroit to a Michigan group which includes the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); note that the FBI has said that CAIR is a front group for Hamas terrorists and cut off formal ties with CAIR.

What's the connection between CAIR, Holder, and the Gitmo spies? Many have suggested, and correctly so, I think, that Major Nadal Hasan's anger went undetected largely because of over-the-top political correctness. The red flags in Hasan's correspondence and daily contacts are totally obvious in hindsight, and it would seem it might have been addressed had not we all been so consumed with not offending anyone.

So how far does political correctness go in this case? Were there red flags? Should we have detected that something was amiss, earlier? In his speech in Detroit, Holder said,“We are committed to protecting the rights of all Americans, including Muslims. This is not blind adherence to political correctness. It is devotion to our founding documents.”

He also said, “For the last nine months, I’ve heard from Muslim and Arab-Americans who feel uneasy about their relationship with their government, who feel isolated and discriminated against by law enforcement. This is simply intolerable. No American should feel denied the tenets of our Constitution or of the government that created it… It is inconsistent with what America is all about.”

Never mind, for the moment, that the United States Attorney General is speaking to a group with terrorist ties. That in itself is a problem. As to what he said, it is all well and good on the face of it; nobody is advocating discrimination against any group here, as long as this correctness doesn't go overboard to the point of overlooking or ignoring a potential problem right in front of your face. And of course, it will be Holder's department that prosecutes any spies at Gitmo.

How comfortable are we that he will take tough enough action to see that this problem is handled, the perpetrators prosecuted, and future problems eliminated? How much, especially after his decision to bring KSM to New York, how much do we trust him with our national security?

Oh wait, maybe bringing them all to Thomson, Illinois will solve the problem.