Military Injustice

PAGE 3 OF 3

MILITARY INJUSTICE

     Yee appealed the reprimand to Southern Command which oversees Guantanamo Bay. On April 14 Commanding Officer General James Hill took the rare step of reversing the reprimand. "While I believe that Chaplain Yee's misconduct was wrong," Hill later told reporters, "I do not believe, given the extreme notoriety of his case that further stigmatizing Chaplain Yee would serve a just and fair purpose."

     In one sense Yee remains shackled to this day by a letter he received from Lt. Col. Marvin S. Whitaker, his commander at Fort Lewis, entitled "First Amendment rights to free speech." It ordered Yee to refrain from any "adverse criticism" of the Department of Defense "or Army policy that is disloyal or disruptive to good order and discipline."

Syrian-born Huda Yee with daughter Sarah while awaiting James Yee's release.

     "Speech that undermines the effectiveness of loyalty, discipline, or unit morale is not constitutionally protected," wrote Whitaker. "Such speech includes, but is not limited to, disrespectful acts or language, however expressed, toward military authorities or other officials."

     "The punch line is, 'Pal -- you're walking in a minefield and we're not going to tell you where the mines are. Proceed at your own risk,'" Yee's attorney believes that, in essence, the broadly phrased commandment prohibits Yee from saying anything about his ordeal on pain of being subjected to more legal charges.

     During his seven-month ordeal, Captain Yee had gone from being branded a "dangerous" threat to national security shackled in leg irons to becoming an exposed adulterer reinstated to his former status as chaplain at his home base of Fort Lewis, Washington. In short, his life had been devastated. The big question remained: Why did it happen?

     "If he were a white American, say a chaplain of some other denomination, I don't think this would have happened," said Fugh. "Any time you do something like this, you're bound to have some damage done to the integrity of the military justice system."

     Yee's supporters in the American Islamic community agree.

     "Nobody in history has been held for 76 days in solitary for the innocuous charge of mishandling documents," said Samia El-Moslimany, of the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

     Some have drawn damning conclusions from the treatment of three other Guantanamo men arrested at around the same time as James Yee.

     One is Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian-born naturalized U.S. citizen serving as an airman in the U.S. Air Force. In July of 2003 while working as a translator at Guantanamo he was arrested and charged with 25 criminal counts, allegedly for failing to report contacts with the Syrian Embassy and trying to send to Syria more than 180 e-mails on behalf of Guantanamo prisoners. The most serious charges of espionage and lying to investigators were were later dropped but al-Halabi was court marshalled in April on 17 criminal counts.

     The second is Ahmed Mehalba, an Egyptian-born civilian interpreter at Guantamo. In September of 2003 he was arrested at Boston's Logan Airport for allegedly mishandling classified data and lying about it. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in November.

     The third is Army Reserve Colonel Jack Farr, a caucasian American who heads up Gauntanamo's prisoner interrogation unit. He was charged in November with transporting classified materials without proper containers on October 11 and lying about the materials when questioned. Like James Yee, the first two were held indefinitely without bail following arrest. Farr remained free and was allowed to remain on duty pending a court-martial hearing seven months later.

     The sole reason for the differing treatment, suggested James' father Joseph Yee, now a 76-year-old World War II veteran, is "ethnic and religious profiling."

     "How much have you heard about Col. Farr's case?" said the elder Yee. "What's the story on him? Col. Jack Farr is Caucasian and not a Muslim. James is Chinese and a Muslim."

     Yee has made no decision about what he will do after his tour of duty ends in 2005. Meanwhile he has begun making discreet public appearances in an effort at rehabilitating his image and raising money to help pay off his large legal bills. One was a talk on Islam in June at the Washington State History Museum for the Tacoma chapter of The Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

     "I'm here today as James Yee, your brother in humanity," he told the audience of about 75. "Today's special for people who have a passion for justice and diversity. Islam is relevant and all over the news. We must understand each other."



     Upon learning of Yee's large legal bills the audience passed around a hat and filled it with cash. Many stepped up after the talk to give more money, to shake Yee's hand, even to get his autograph.

     "I apologize as an American," said one man as he shook hands.

     Perhaps in deference to the Army gag order Yee said nothing about his ordeal.

     A Defense Committee officer presented Yee with a plank from Tacoma's old Japanese Language School building which had been demolished earlier in 2004. The school had closed when students and their parents were interned during World War II. The intervening sixty years had not been enough to protect James Yee from the same kind of race based hysteria triggered by a national crisis.

1 | 2 | 3

“I'm here today as James Yee, your brother in humanity.”