Thursday, May 22, 2008

Muslim translator who stole classified Iraq maps gets 11 years

Why just 11 years? Because maybe he "was only a troubled man who gathered the material for no apparent reason." Yeah, that's it!

"Translator Who Took Classified Iraq Maps Is Sentenced," by Joseph Goldstein for the New York Sun, May 20 (thanks to all who sent this in): A Brooklyn man who stole classified documents while serving as a translator in Iraq was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in prison after a federal judge showed leniency, saying he could not tell with certainty whether the translator was spying for the insurgency or was only a troubled man who gathered the material for no apparent reason.

The documents in Noureddine Malki’s possession included battle maps showing routes used by American troops and lists of locations that troops suspected were used to hide weapons of mass destruction. Authorities found the documents in Malki’s Hoyt Street apartment in 2005, upon his return from a third tour in Iraq.

Taking the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn for the first time since his jailing nearly three years ago, Malki, now 48, testified that he believed the government was going “hard” on him because of his “cultural background” — he is Muslim and from Morocco. He said that he never used the contents of the documents to harm American troops.

“I love this country just as I love myself,” Malki, who moved to America in 1988 by way of France, said. “I will never ever bite the hand of the person that feeds me. The United States is the person who feeds me. I made an honest mistake. I overlooked the return of the classified material.”...
Thanks Jihad Watch

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