Terrorism Notebook
Guantánamo Army officer is charged

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

Two Arabic translators and a Muslim chaplain, Capt. James Yee, who had been based at Fort Lewis, face charges ranging from espionage to adultery at the base, where interrogators are questioning some 660 detainees from 44 countries.

Farr was charged Saturday with "wrongfully transporting classified material without the proper security container on or around Oct. 11," and lying to investigators, said a statement from the U.S. Southern Command.

Southern Command spokesman Lt. Commander Chris Loundermon said he did not know if Farr had direct contact with detainees. He declined to describe the classified material.

Loundermon said Farr is a reservist who had been on temporary duty at Guantánamo Bay for six months.

Farr is not under arrest and has not been suspended, Loundermon said.

Synagogue-bombing suspect is charged with treason

ANKARA, Turkey — A suspect in the bombing of a Turkish synagogue was charged yesterday with attempting to overthrow Turkey's "constitutional order by force," the Anatolia news agency reported. The charge amounts to treason and is punishable by life in prison.

The man, whose name was not released, is suspected of plotting and giving the go-ahead for the Nov. 15 suicide-truck bombing outside Istanbul's Beth Israel synagogue, Istanbul Deputy Police Chief Halil Yilmaz said. He was arrested Tuesday at the Gurbulak border crossing in the eastern Agri province, which borders Iran.

Police had been tipped off that the man planned to flee Turkey using false documents, Yilmaz said without elaboration.

Anatolia did not say why the court charged the man with treason. But leaders of outlawed groups that aim to overthrow the system have been charged with treason in the past.

Twenty-nine people, including the two bombers, perished in the attack and another synagogue bombing in Istanbul. Attacks on the British Consulate and a British bank five days later claimed 32 lives, including the two bombers. All four suicide bombers were Turks.

Turkish engineer released after month as Taliban captive

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents freed a Turkish road engineer who was kidnapped a month ago in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said today.

The governor of southern Ghazni province said engineer Hasan Onal was in the hands of the Afghan government. A senior Taliban official said earlier that Onal was released to tribal elders last night.

Gov. Haji Asad Ullah Khan said Onal had been released unconditionally and was fit and healthy.

Onal, an employee of the Turkish company Gulsan-Cukurova, was abducted Oct. 30 along with his Afghan driver while returning by car to a camp for construction workers repairing the Kabul-Kandahar highway. The driver was freed soon after with a ransom note.

Also ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai met the head of the U.S. Central Command yesterday to discuss stepping up the fight against militants infiltrating from Pakistan, after the bloodiest months in Afghanistan since U.S. troops drove the Taliban from power. Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban until the September 11, 2001, attacks but now a U.S. ally in its war on terror, says it is doing it best to combat militants and denies providing sanctuary for them. ... The USS Cole and its crew of 340 pulled out of Norfolk, Va., yesterday for the destroyer's first overseas deployment since it was bombed by terrorists three years ago in Yemen's port of Aden. The guided-missile destroyer was brought back to the United States and underwent $250 million in repairs. Two suicide bombers had driven an explosive-packed boat into the side of the Cole, tearing a large hole in the ship and killing 17 crew members.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company