Translator Gets 11 Years For Stealing Classified Documents

The NY Sun reports that a translator who stole military maps in Iraq was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

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.”

Malki said he mistakenly packed up the documents during a hasty departure at the end of one of his tours. He worked for L-3 Titan Group as a translator for the U.S. Army, a position that brought him into contact with Iraqi sources who provided information to the Army. Although he had a security clearance, he was never authorized to have any of the documents discovered in his apartment; he pleaded guilty last year to unauthorized possession of documents related to the national defense.

An assistant United States attorney, John Buretta, suggested that Malki could have passed along the classified information to the insurgency. Mr. Buretta pointed out that Malki’s phone records and e-mails show that even after returning home to Brooklyn, he stayed in contact with Iraqis, some of whom had ties to the insurgency. The prosecutor also said Malki had been accused of sneaking off one of the bases he lived on while in Iraq and that a superior had shown concern over the amount of time Malki spent with an Iraqi source who had known contacts in the insurgency.

The government is going easy on him because he violated operational security of an ongoing military mission. However, he does have a point considering that another individual who stole classified documents was given a veritable slap on the wrist, Sandy Berger.