Sperry said the FBI has been joined in the investigation by the U.S.
military as well as several committees in Congress. He said the latest
suspects were alleged to have held back intelligence provided by Al Qaida
detainees, advising the Islamists to accuse the U.S. Navy of abuse and
transferring messages to and from the detainees.
This marked the second time that Arabic and Pashtu interpreters in the
Pentagon were accused of collaborating with Al Qaida. In 2003, the FBI
arrested several Arabic interpreters, two of them with high-level security
clearance. An Egyptian and Syrian were convicted of stealing or mishandling
classified documents.
"Six years later comes a new problem with Muslim personnel who have
virtually unfettered access to detainees and intelligence at Gitmo," Sperry said.
Critics, citing political pressure, asserted that the Pentagon failed to
eliminate the alleged Islamist moles at Guantanamo. They said the Pentagon
ignored proper vetting procedures and employed Muslims with family links to
jihad groups in the Middle East and Pakistan.
The alleged moles were said to have been in contact with Khalid Sheik
Mohammed, charged with planning the 2001 attacks and scheduled to stand
trial in New York City. A report prepared for the U.S. intelligence
community asserted that Mohammed and other Al Qaida detainees were believed
to have benefited by the moles.
"Three years of investigations have revealed the presence of
pro-jihad/anti-Western activities among the civilian-contractor and
military-linguist population serving Joint Task Force Guantanamo," the
classified report, distributed in May 2009 to the U.S. intelligence
community and Congress, read. "These actions are deliberate, carefully
planned, global, and to the benefit of the detainees and multiple terrorist organizations, to include Al Qaida
and Muslim Brotherhood."
Sperry, author of a book on jihad in the West, titled "Muslim Mafia," said at least one in seven former Guantanamo inmates has returned to insurgency activity. He said the freed detainees were believed to have relayed to Al Qaida and Taliban details of the interrogations they had undergone at Guantanamo.
"To prevent future betrayal, the government must reevaluate its
security-clearance and hiring procedures for contract and military
linguists," Sperry said. "Post-hiring, it must institute periodic security
interviews, polygraph exams and database-access audits for each translator."
