Spy case investigator charged with rape


TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) -- A key investigator in the espionage case against a Syrian-American translator at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo has been charged with raping and sodomizing children, officials said on Tuesday.

The charges were made public during a pretrial hearing for Senior Airman Ahmad Al Halabi, who is accused of carrying jail maps, letters and other documents from Guantanamo Bay where he worked an Arabic translator with suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who are being held there.

During a break, Halabi's attorney told reporters that Air Force Sgt. Marc Palmosina, who had overseen the probe against his client, had been charged with raping and sodomizing children, some as young as 11 years old, on numerous occasions, and with mishandling classified documents.

Military officials later gave reporters a list of charges against Palmosina which include rape of a person under the age of 12 in Japan in 1998 and 2000 and sodomy with a child under the age of 12 in Vacaville, California.

"It's not good," Col. John Kellogg, deputy staff judge advocate for Air Mobility Command, told Reuters. But it should not affect Halabi's upcoming trial, he added.

"It's a big government," he continued. "The case stands on its own merits. Investigators and people will be able to answer all the questions that (need to be) answered."

The charges against Palmosina were filed on May 26 but only came to light on Tuesday. They also include "failing to safeguard some number of classified documents and/or failing to store some number of classified documents only in authorized locations."

Military officials could not immediately confirm if the documents charges were related to the case against Halabi.

Defense attorneys were expected to ask a military judge to dismiss the case based on allegations of what it claimed was prosecutorial misconduct by case agent Lance Wega.

A motion submitted to the military judge charged that Wega has withheld evidence, presented misleading testimony and obstructed justice by, in effect, intimidating a translator on the case.


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