Boston

The FBI admitted yesterday that it accidentally gave classified documents back to the American translator who pleaded guilty to taking them from the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, released from jail earlier this month, contacted the FBI's Boston office Tuesday after he realized agents inadvertently had given him the compact disc containing the secret files along with his personal property.

Mehalba had the disc in his possession for a "matter of hours" before the FBI retrieved it, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ricciuti said.

"Someone in the bureau obviously made a serious mistake," Ricciuti said.

Mehalba, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen who was working as a civilian Arabic translator at Guantánamo, was arrested at Boston's Logan International Airport on Sept. 29, 2003, after Customs agents found the disc in his possession.

Great Falls, Mont.

Confession reported in Letterman plot

The man accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's 16-month-old son confessed after FBI agents said they wanted to give him a polygraph test, court records show.

Kelly Frank, 43, faces felony charges of solicitation and theft and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction. He pleaded not guilty and was being held on $650,000 bail.

Frank initially denied knowledge of a kidnap plot when FBI agents interviewed him March 15, the documents said. But he gave investigators a signed confession when agents returned the next day with a polygraph examiner, the records show.

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