TURNCOATS AT GITMO

Very disturbing story from Guantanamo:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Air Force enlisted man has been charged with spying and aiding the enemy while working as an Arabic translator at the U.S. base in Cuba where hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners are jailed, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

Senior U.S. Airman Ahmad al Halabi of Detroit, Michigan, is in jail at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, where he is charged with 32 counts, including espionage and other criminal violations, according to the Pentagon.

Defense officials said al Halabi, a 24-year-old Muslim, was found to have classified information on a computer in violation of strict security rules at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The announcement came as the Pentagon also investigated possible espionage charges against Army Islamic chaplain James Yee, held in a military jail in South Carolina since Sept. 10.

No charges have been filed against Yee, who this year ministered to many of the 660 prisoners at Guantanamo.

Air Force Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said al Halabi knew Yee, but it was not clear whether the two arrests were linked.

Let me venture a guess--they're linked. Let me also venture another guess--there will be more arrests, if there haven't been already.

Looking at our armed forces today, it's clear to me that we have an interior vulnerability. John Mohammed, one of the Beltway snipers, attempted to frag superior officers during the first Gulf War. We had another successful frag during the most recent war in Iraq. And now, if it turns out to be true, we have two and maybe more military personnel spying for terrorists while serving on active duty in a very sensitive installation. The one thing linking them all is the fact that they are all Muslim. They are also all male, incidentally, which is probably just evidence of the sexist attitude that dominates radical Islam.

Add to this the Oregon cell that was busted last year. One of its members tried to join the Army to learn its doctrines with the hope of using that knowledge against us later. And then there's the Egyptian-born terrorist Ali-Mohamed, who took part in the 1998 African embassy bombings. He had previously served in the US Army.

We may have a very serious problem on our hands. Between 4,000 and 10,000 practicing Muslims serve in the US armed forces today, roughly a dozen of which are chaplains. While the bad actions of a few should by no means besmirch all who serve honorably, it might be time to ask a few hard questions and, as much as I hate to say this, to look carefully into the backgrounds of all Muslims currently serving in the US military.

Al Qaeda certainly has a motive for placing its operatives in our ranks. It evidently has had the means, and it definitely has the opportunity--the military asks fewer and fewer background questions of its new recruits. That needs to change.

UPDATE: The Pentagon apparently relies on three groups tied to radical Islam--three groups that the State Deparment has been raiding over the past year or so--to vet potential Muslim chaplains. Unbelievable. They're putting Wahhabi mullahs in US military uniforms.