Army’s prosecution of Muslim chaplain falls apart
The case that “began with a bang” may “end with a whimper.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1211/dailyUpdate.html?s=entt
December 11, 2003
By Tom Regan
The Christian Science Monitor
When he was first arrested in September, and charged with having
classified documents, Muslim chaplain Youssef Yee was accused of being
part of an espionage ring at Camp X-Ray, the US military facility at
Guantanamo Bay that houses “enemy combatants.” Mr. Yee, who had served
as a Muslim chaplain at the base, was locked in a brig for 76 days, and
often restrained by leg and wrist shackles. Media commentators wrote
about the “enemy within,” while some on Capitol Hill called for an
investigation into the organization that provides Muslim chaplains to
the military. Yee’s lawyer was told that his client might face the
death penalty.
But the case against Yee has slowly fallen apart. In late November, Yee
was suddenly released from the brig where he was held in South
Carolina, and returned to active duty at Fort Bragg, Georgia.
Additional charges, much less serious than the original charges were
filed against him for storing pornography on a government computer, and
committing adultery. The Seattle Times reports that his release from
jail means that he is no longer being looked at as aiding terrorists.
“It certainly doesn’t seem as serious as it appeared at first,” said
retired Army Brig. Gen. John Cooke, an expert on military law and past
chairman of the American Bar Association’s committee on armed-forces
law. “If they had any credible reason to believe he was involved in
terrorism, they would not have released him.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Tuesday that the “Article 32”
hearing to determine if Yee would face a court-martial was put on hold
for a month while the Army determined if the documents found in his
briefcase were indeed classified ones.
“Obviously, it’s the position of both the trial counsel and the defense
that the material be looked at properly and be treated properly,” said
Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello, spokesman for the Southern Command. The
military did not explain why this process still had not been completed,
three months after Yee’s arrest.
The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that this disclosure caused Yee’s
civilian attorney, Eugene Fidell, to wonder outloud how Yee could have
been locked in a brig for 76 days for mishandling classified documents
when military officials had not reviewed the papers to find out if they
contained information that could compromise security if released.
“We need Joseph Heller,” said Fidell, referring to the author of
“Catch-22,” the 1961 novel whose protagonist becomes entangled in a web
of military absurdities.
The month-long delay comes a week after the hearing’s first pushback,
which was ordered when the Army announced its prosecutors may have
mistakenly mishandled classified documents (the same thing that Yee is
supposed to have done wrong), and sent them to the defense.
But Yee’s lawyers are enraged at the Army’s handling of the case,
according to the Miami Herald. “I think they really shot first and
asked questions later,” said Matthew Freedus, another one of Yee’s
defense lawyers. The Boston Globe reports that the second delay was
ordered only after Fidell clashed with Army Colonel Dan Trimble, the
investigating officer who is to judge whether the charges against Yee
merit a court martial. Fidell stormed into the courtroom Tuesday,
complaining to observers that Mr. Trimble wanted to discuss the problem
behind closed doors in violation of his client’s right to a public
hearing.
Yee’s defense team also said the Army withheld evidence, hid witnesses
and conducted an unfair hearing. “This is the most incredible military
justice proceeding that this defense counsel has ever been involved
with,” said Maj. Scot Sikes, a former prosecutor who is acting as Yee’s
military lawyer.
“It concerns me that this case was raised to a level (far) above
reality and it seems we’ve been on a steady decline in the seriousness
of the allegations,” Sikes said Tuesday, standing atop the steps of the
red brick courthouse here. “When you raise it to the level that it was,
there’s some face-saving perhaps that has to go on.”
Sikes urged the Army to drop the charges and deal with the misconduct
allegations administratively. “All we want is an even playing field.
Our client is not a spy, and he has not aided and abetted the enemy,
whoever the enemy is.”
Military prosecutors, however, made no apologies and appeared
undeterred by the repeated objections raised by Yee’s attorneys during
Monday’s hearings.
Yee’s lawyers were particularly upset that Monday the Army focused on
the charges of porn and adultery – forcing Yee’s wife to sit through
the testimony of his alleged mistress – before admitting it wasn’t sure
if he had actually transported any classified documents out of the
Cuban base. CNN reports that the defense, however, did get one of the
prosecution’s witness (the custom agent who seized his briefcase) to
admit that none of the papers in the briefcase were marked classified
or secret. The agent said he had received a tip from someone in “law
enforcement” to search Yee, but he would not say it was.
The San Jose Mercury notes that Muslim-American and Asian-America
activists are also outraged about Yee’s treatment, saying Yee was
targeted because he was both a Muslim and an Asian-American. Others say
Yee was imprisoned because he was about to criticize conditions at the
camp. They also took a swipe at the national media, pointing out that
Yee’s arrest was national news, but his release last week was barely
covered by the media.
“I find the government’s handling of Capt. Yee’s case to date
outrageous,” said University of California-Berkeley Professor Ling-chi
Wang … “I must wonder if the government’s case against him was driven
by racism and religious bias.”
Colin Campbell, writing Thursday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
says it seems that Yee is being “court-martialed for treasonable
horniness.” Mr. Campbell muses what would happen if this policy was
extended.
Does the Defense Department plan to arrest all the other adulterers it
learns about? Will the US soon be using its amazing new arrest-anybody
powers to imprison Internet-browsing soldiers in Iraq, adulterous
congressmen, and at least one former Director of Central Intelligence?
Comment:
The case that started with a bang indeed ends with a whimper. Makes you wonder why they arrested him, was it to frighten muslims in the American army or was it just a mistake? Well the loyalty of the muslims wherever we are is to our lord Allah swt and to obey him under all circumstances. America is free to humilate muslims because no state exists in the world which will challenge their hegomony and injustice. But alhamdulilah the winds of change are beginning to blow in the muslim lands and tomorrow will inshAllah bring a better day for the muslim ummah and humanity.
I say prosecute the prosecutors.