Submitted by admin on Sun, 2005-10-23 08:01. ::
James Yee answers the headlines with his side of how a Muslim Army chaplain was charged with spying for al Qaida at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
In "For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire," written with Aimee Molloy, Yee says although he was a West Point graduate, as a Muslim chaplain he came under suspicion because of his religion.
It was a desire to ease religious tensions that had led the third-generation Chinese-American from New Jersey into a career as an Army chaplain. He was serving at Fort Lewis, Wash., on Sept. 11, 2001.
The terrorist attacks presented Yee with more opportunity to bridge cultural differences. By November 2002 he was the Muslim chaplain for Camp Delta where about 700 enemy combatants were held -- all Muslims. He also served a small community of Muslim translators.
Yee tells how prison conditions tore him between military loyalty and concern for brother Muslims. He describes how an us-versus-them mentality led to everyday brutality in the cells. He reports complaints of abuse during interrogations amounting to torture.
Yee calls himself a no-nonsense guy, and his story is presented in an easy-to-follow, mostly chronological account that at times seems almost too objective.
Why wasn't he more outraged at frequent searches called "the credit card swipe" -- when guards would press their fingers into a detainee's buttocks? Why weren't other officers restraining aggressive guards in riot gear who would crush an inmate for refusing to cooperate?
He was pulled into the gulag Sept. 10, 2003, when leaving for a visit home to Olympia, Wash., where he was to meet his wife Huda and daughter Sarah arriving from a stay in Syria.
Yee describes how federal agents accused him of spying because some personal papers — phone numbers, a to-do list, notes about Syria — where mistaken for classified documents.
He was taken to the Navy brig at Charleston, S.C., and held for 76 days in solitary confinement, not much different than Camp Delta. The shackles cut into HIS skin. "I was well aware of the irony," he writes.
The charges, which carried a possible death penalty, eventually collapsed for lack of evidence. To cover its errors, Yee says, the military spitefully brought charges against him of adultery and having pornography on his computer. It was an accusation that pushed his wife to consider suicide.
Yee maintained a professional distance as a chaplain, and that distance is evident in the reserved voice of the book. He also says his religion helped him control his emotion, and the book has a controlled tone.
"I came to understand just how craven the people behind this ordeal were. This was just another attempt to turn public attention away from the real questions that my case raised — civil liberties and what was happening inside Guantanamo — and steer it toward accusations that would sensationalize the hearing and in the process humiliate me."
Yee hoped to continue as a Muslim chaplain at Fort Lewis, but he describes a hostile environment. His career was over. He resigned, effective Jan. 7, 2005, and received an honorable discharge.
Yee's book is an indictment. "How can we expect nations to join us in our war against terror when we are denying the detainees the very rights we claim to be fighting for abroad?"
His experience raises troubling questions, among them: "Was I used as another means of creating fear in order to justify a need for more expansive executive powers?"
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