Airman detailed to Cuba despite suspicions

[Judi Lynn]

< The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 9/26/03 >

Airman detailed to Cuba despite suspicions

By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press


WASHINGTON -- Air Force authorities were "monitoring and investigating" a Syrian-born supply clerk before he was sent to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay to be an Arabic translator for suspected terrorists, court documents show.

Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi is charged with espionage for allegedly e-mailing classified information about the prison camp to an unspecified "enemy" and planning to give other secrets about the prison to someone traveling to Syria. He is one of two members of the military at the prison camp in Cuba to be arrested during an investigation of possible security breaches there.

The other suspect, Army Capt. Yousef Yee, a Muslim chaplain, is being held without charge at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Al-Halabi, 24, is behind bars at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations has been keeping track of al-Halabi since November 2002, before he was sent to the prison camp, OSI Special Agent Lance Wega wrote in applying to a California federal court for a search warrant. A federal magistrate in Sacramento granted Wega's request for a warrant to collect a package al-Halabi sent from Guantanamo Bay to his home address at Travis Air Force Base.
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Hey, Novelty post here!


A stuffed almiqui!

Animal once thought extinct found in Cuba
Copyright © 2003 Nando Media
Copyright © 2003 AP Online


The Associated Press


A stuffed 'almiqui,' an insectivore native to Cuba, is shown at the Cuban Museum of Natural Science on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2003, in Havana, Cuba.
HAVANA (September 23, 11:13 a.m. ADT) - A living example of an insectivore native to Cuba - but believed for years to extinct - has been found in the island's eastern mountains, a Cuban news agency reported.
The discovery of the male insect-eating mammal known as an almiqui (pronounced ahl-mee-KEE) raises hopes "that it will not wind up in the catalog of the irretrievable animals disappearing from the face of the Earth," Prensa Latina said in reporting the discovery.

The creature looks like a brownish woolly badger with a long, pink-tipped snout and can measure up to about 19 inches, according to Prensa Latina's Monday dispatch.

The nocturnal animal burrows underground during the daytime, explaining why it is rarely seen by people. After the sun goes down, it emerges to root out worms, larvae and insects.

Named "Alejandrito" by the farmer who found it, the living almiqui weighed 24 ounces and veterinarians declared the animal in perfect health. (snip/...)

http://www.adn.com/24hour/healthscience/story/1007709p-7075392c.html