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U.S. Army Translator Pleads Guilty to Possessing Iraq Documents
Bloomberg
By Patricia Hurtado
February 14, 2007

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- An Arabic translator for the U.S. Army who had a top-secret security clearance pleaded guilty to unauthorized possession of documents concerning plans to combat insurgents in Iraq.

Abdulhakeem Nour used a fake identity to win a translator job with L-3 Titan Corp., which contracts with the U.S. military in Iraq, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said today. The documents, including one showing the coordinates of insurgent locations the Army was preparing to attack in January 2004, were found in his Brooklyn apartment in 2005.

"The defendant fraudulently obtained security clearances and then stole classified information" Mauskopf said in a statement. Nour's real name isn't known, she said.

Nour, while assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's intelligence group, admitted downloading a classified document and taking hard copies of other papers, including one describing a plan to protect Sunni Muslims during a pilgrimage. Nour also photographed a classified map identifying U.S. troop routes during the August 2004 battle of Najaf, Mauskopf said.

Nour, who was born in Morocco, pleaded guilty in December 2005 to using false identification to obtain U.S. citizenship and access to classified materials. He faces as long as 60 years in prison on all seven counts when he is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn, Mauskopf said.

No sentencing date has been set, said his lawyer, Mildred Whelan.

The case is US v. Abdulhakeem Nour, 06-CR-216, filed in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in New York courts at pathurtado@bloomberg.net .

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