3 Counts Against Translator Are Dropped
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — The Air Force has dropped three counts in an espionage case against a Syrian-born airman who worked as a translator at the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The lawyer for Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, Donald G. Rehkopf Jr., said on Saturday that once those charges were removed, "simply the gut of the case was gone."

A single count in the charge that accused the airman of "aiding the enemy," a capital offense, was dropped. Also dropped were counts that dealt with e-mailing information about detainees and committing espionage by transmitting information to unauthorized recipients. Airman al-Halabi still faces 17 charges. He was arrested in July.

Lt. Gen. William Welser III, commander of the 18th Air Force at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, convening authority for Airman al-Halabi's general court-martial, gave no rationale for his decision to drop the charges.