New York Daily News October 02, 2003
RED FLAGS ON GITMO SPY SUSPECT
By MAKI BECKER
The latest suspect in the Guantanamo spy scandal flunked out of Army interrogation school, was rejected for a security job at Boston's airport and was under surveillance by Massachusetts police.
Despite the red flags, Ahmed Mehalba, 31, managed to get security clearance to be an interpreter helping interrogate suspected members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
"I would think they would have done a background investigation," said Tim Brown, a senior fellow at Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-area research group.
Mehalba was on his way back to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from Egypt when he was stopped Monday by Customs officials at Boston's Logan Airport.
He lied about having classified information from the base on a computer disk in his luggage, according to court papers.
It was not the first time Mehalba raised the suspicions of the feds.
In 2001, his name came up during an investigation of his girlfriend, fellow soldier Deborah Gephart, who was arrested for allegedly stealing a car. Authorities said they found a laptop computer in the car that contained classified information. Mehalba had been discharged days before the arrest for medical reasons and after flunking the interrogation program, Army officials said.
On Sept. 13, 2001, he applied for a security job at Logan, according to officials at the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport.
"He was never considered or interviewed and was sent a form rejection letter," a spokeswoman said.
Around the same time, Mehalba, living in the Boston suburb of Salem, caught the eye of a cop assigned to watch for possible terrorist activity, according to the Salem Evening News.
"I can say I was aware of him [in 2001], but because of this investigation, I can't say why," Detective Sgt. Michael Andreas told the newspaper.
Before Mehalba joined the Army, he filed for bankruptcy in 1997, owing about $27,000, according to the Boston Herald.
Soon after, while he was working as a cabbie at Cambridge Star Taxi, the owner sued him for failing to report traffic accidents to the police and insurance companies.
Copyright 2003 Daily News, L.P.
