Posted on 12/10/2003 11:44:52 AM PST by Shermy
FORT BENNING, Ga., Dec. 9 — The criminal proceedings against Capt. James J. Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, fell into confusion on Tuesday and stalled as the military prosecutors asked for extra time to determine whether documents that were found in Captain Yee's luggage when he was leaving the base were, in fact, classified.
The hearing was postponed until Jan. 19 to give the prosecutors time to review the documents that set off a major investigation into whether Captain Yee was a spy, a contention from which the government has since emphatically distanced itself.
The military's case against Captain Yee ostensibly began when customs officials found documents they believed were suspicious and possibly containing classified materials in his backpack on Sept. 10 when he arrived from Guantánamo at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla. Officials initially thought Captain Yee might have been part of an elaborate plan to infiltrate the Caribbean base, where some 660 prisoners from the Afghan war are being held.
Officials placed Captain Yee in solitary confinement for nearly three months in a naval brig while they completed their investigation into possible espionage. Maj. Scott Sikes, one of Captain Yee's defense lawyers, said on Tuesday that military prosecutors once told him that they might seek the death penalty in the case.
But when the investigation was completed last month and Captain Yee was released, the military did not bring any serious espionage case. Instead, he was charged with two counts of mishandling classified data, a reference to the materials found in his luggage, as well as four new charges with no apparent connection to security issues. Those included adultery and keeping pornography on his government computer, issues that prosecutors said came to their attention in the espionage investigation.
After repeated complaints from defense lawyers that they could not proceed on the issue of mishandling classified information if it remained unclear whether the documents were classified, the government acquiesced on Tuesday. Lt. Col. Mike Mulligan, one of the prosecutors, said the government had decided to conduct a thorough classification review of the documents.
Eugene R. Fidell, Captain Yee's civilian defense lawyer, called it disgraceful that his client had been kept in the brig for 76 days for possessing materials that the government still had not determined were classified. Mr. Fidell also said the military should be embarrassed to have tried to proceed with a criminal hearing on the charges without the determination.
The postponement of the hearing may create another problem for the prosecution. Mr. Fidell said that under military law charges were supposed to be brought within 120 days of the Sept. 10 arrest. The government has suggested that various factors have extended the time frame.
Major Sikes said he hoped the military would decide to drop the case. He said he believed that the military was pressing ahead as part of an unwise effort to save face over its initial miscalculation.
The case, he noted, "started out with allegations of being a spy."
"There has since been a steady decline in the seriousness of the allegations," Major Sikes said.
Major Sikes, a former military prosecutor, said, "This is the most incredible military proceeding this military counsel has ever seen."
In addition to the complaints about how much information the defense was receiving, Mr. Fidell apparently became embroiled in a feud with the presiding judge, Col. Dan Trimble, and refused to meet with him privately in his office. Mr. Fidell said that at a Tuesday morning meeting Colonel Trimble accused him of grandstanding and raising too many objections.
Mr. Fidell said he objected to Colonel Trimble's efforts to deal with the case behind closed doors and then told reporters that he felt the proceeding "should not be dealt with as a friendly and cozy agreement between us lawyers."
When Colonel Trimble approached Mr. Fidell in the hallway later and asked to meet with him privately, Mr. Fidell refused.
Colonel Trimble declined to comment.
Hearing Starts for Muslim Army Chaplain
Didn't pass the smell-test then, worse now.
Here, for example, is a substantial collection of captives whose very names are being kept secret, even from their own families and certainly from the courts. A chaplain, of any persuasion, might at least try to make notes of the names of the people who are his (unwilling) congregants, if only to keep track of their particular (appropriate, spiritual or emotional) needs. I suspect some of these purported breach of security cases were perhaps well-meaning attempts to either tell the captive's family that he was still alive or find out for the captive some news about his family, etc.
Can't argue with his attorney on that point.
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