Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi was arrested July 23 at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida on arrival from the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he worked in a detention center for suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners.

The military judge presiding over the court martial, Colonel Barbara Brand, set December 15 as the opening day of the trial at Travis Air Force Base in California.

Brand was expected to arraign Halabi and hear pretrial motions.

Charges against Halabi were on count of failing to obey a general order, one ount of aiding the enemy, four counts of espionage, five counts of making a false official statements, two counts of retaining documents without authority, and one count of fraud related to a credit card application.

Halabi was one of three people arrested in a hunt for spies at the maximum security facility.

Army Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain at the base, is on trial at Fort Benning, Georgia, on lesser charges of mishandling classified information and unrelated charges of adultery and having pornography on his computer after being arrested in September on suspicion of espionage.

Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, arrested at Boston's Logan International Airport in late Seteptmber, pleaded innocent last month to charges of gathering, transmitting or losing defense information and two counts of making false statements.

WAR.WIRE