A civilian translator at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects had hundreds of documents labeled “secret” in his possession when he was arrested last month, an FBI agent said on Wednesday. Prosecutors have accused Ahmed Fathy Mehalba of lying to federal officials about classified information he was carrying on Sept. 29 when he arrived in the United States from Egypt, where he had been visiting relatives. The arrest of Mehalba, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Egyptian descent, brought to three the number of people detained after being assigned to work at the U.S. naval base in Cuba where more than 650 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members are held without being charged. At a probable cause hearing before a federal magistrate judge in Worcester, Massachusetts, FBI Special Agent John Van Kleeff testified that government computer experts had since determined that 368 of 725 files found on a computer disc in Mehalba’s possession were labeled “secret.” Full Story
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