Military drops all charges against chaplain

The fading espionage case against Army Capt. James Yee, the Muslim chaplain who ministered to Guantánamo Bay prisoners, came to an abrupt end yesterday after the U.S. military dropped all charges against him.

In a surprise move, the Army dismissed allegations of mishandling classified information — the most serious offenses left in a case authorities once described as involving spying, mutiny, sedition and aiding the enemy.

"Chaplain Yee has won," said his lawyer, Eugene Fidell. "The Army's dismissal of the classified-information charges against him represents a long-overdue vindication.

Yee, who was stationed at Fort Lewis before Cuba's Guantánamo, was unavailable for comment yesterday, his lawyer said.

Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the Guantánamo commander, said he dropped the charges because of national-security concerns that would arise from the release of evidence in a court proceeding, according to a statement released by the U.S. Southern Command in Florida.

Miller made his decision after consulting with government lawyers and intelligence officials, the statement said.

The military also dropped criminal charges of violating military law by committing adultery and storing pornographic images on a government computer.

Just days ago, Yee's defense team had proposed a settlement that called for the Army to dismiss the more serious charges of mishandling classified information.

In return, Yee would agree to undergo a lie-detector test and have the charges of adultery and pornography tried through an Article 15 proceeding, the military's method for dealing with minor infractions.

Yesterday's actions were not a result of the settlement offer, according to Fidell.

The Army said yesterday it still would seek administrative sanctions against Yee on the adultery and pornography allegations. Such penalties are typically mild, and could include duty restrictions or a temporary pay cut.

Fidell rejected the idea that national-security concerns influenced the decision to drop the case.

Even if there were evidence that was classified, Yee's lawyers have the necessary clearances to review such material, Fidell said.

"The government's explanation, therefore, raises more questions than it answers."

Only a few days ago the government said it still was determining which documents in the case were classified as sensitive, he said.

Imam Mohamad Joban, a friend of Yee's who runs the Islamic Center of Olympia, cheered the news after learning of it from a reporter yesterday.

At last night's weekly prayer service, Joban paused and told his congregation, "I have some good news I want to give you."

"Allah-Hu-Akbar (God is great)," the congregation responded solemnly upon hearing the news.

Many of the 75 people at last night's service knew Yee from his time at Fort Lewis and continue to maintain a friendship with his wife, Huda Suboh, and the couple's 4-year-old daughter, Sarah, who live in Olympia.

"We had the feeling that the government had no case from the beginning," said Nabil Azouz, a friend.

Joban closed his announcement by noting that when Yee was arrested, it was national news, but when the charges were dropped, it was "only small news, no breaking news, no CNN, no NBC."

Yee was arrested on suspicion of espionage and sedition last Sept. 10 at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida as he arrived back in the United States from Guantánamo.

Federal agents said he was found with information on detainees, their interrogators, and the prison facilities at Guantánamo Bay, where he ministered to captured Taliban and al-Qaida suspects.

But even as he spent the next 76 days in solitary confinement in a Navy brig, the case against him began to erode.

He was released Nov. 25 after being charged with six considerably lesser offenses, including making a false official statement, mishandling classified documents and the new charges of adultery and storing pornography, which investigators said they discovered during their investigation.

At a hearing to determine whether he should be held for a court-martial, the U.S. Customs agent who searched Yee's backpack at the Florida airport said he had found two pocket-size notebooks, a paper on Syria and a typed list of names and numbers with the top torn off.

Fidell said the military has never said which of the documents were classified, and some of the documents termed suspicious included research materials for a graduate course Yee was taking on Middle East politics — a course being paid for by the U.S. Army.

"It would be tempting to call this a comedy of errors, but there's nothing comic about putting an officer in solitary confinement for 76 days," Fidell said.

Yee, a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was raised a Lutheran in New Jersey. He converted to Islam while in the Army at about the same time he served in Saudi Arabia after the 1991 Gulf War.

His arrest gained national attention. Some saw it as symptomatic of security breaches at Guantánamo Bay, where 660 prisoners from 44 countries are being held.

Yee was one of four people, including an Army colonel and two Arabic translators, charged with breaches at the base. The charges against the other three are pending.

Others saw Yee, who also goes by the name Yousef Yee, as a victim of racial and anti-Muslim targeting by the government.

One of a handful of Muslim chaplains in the armed services, Yee had become one of the most visible spokesmen for Muslims in the military after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, calling for tolerance in the ranks and insisting that Islam was a religion of peace.

The Army said Yee, who is currently stationed at Fort Mead, Md., will be returned to his duty station at Fort Lewis at the conclusion of any Article 15 hearings.

His future in the military is uncertain. Fidell previously had said that he wondered "how Yousef will ever be able to shake off the stigma of being publicly branded in such horrific terms."

Fidell said there is no legal recourse for Yee to sue the government for damage to his name and his time spent in jail.

"The recourse is in the court of public opinion," Fidell said. "And I think the American people's sense of justice has been very much on display in this case. The breadth and intensity of public and private support has been extraordinary and extremely touching for him."

This is a very weird case. Not sure I am buying General Miller's explanation. If The Army had any security concerns about Yee they certainly wouldn't return him to his old command.

The charges of conduct unbecoming, conduct prejudicial, adultery, and pornography would require no security revelations to prove. General Miller's explanation sounds a bit incongruous.

After a 20 year career in the Army as a Commissioned Officer, experience tells me that you can bet your last dollar that there is a brokered deal here. Having worked most of that time in areas involving security matters and access there are things related to sources and methods that you don't want in a trial record because once it's there it is public and once public any two bit shyster can get a copy of it and end up getting some innocent a dirt nap once out in the open.

BTW: An Art 15 for an officer by itself is a career ender and usually means a General Discharge and not an Honorable.

This case sounds like a knee-jerk reaction by the military on some "suspected" security risk. When they didn't have the evidence, they charged him with adultery and pronography. Yikes.

Were there not some officer or general who had sex with enlisted women a few years back. Did that person get retirement?

That is my guess too. Some Army CID guy got the hot and grumpies about a muslim chaplain and decided to gin up a case. The fact that the Army was unable to determine the security classification of the documents that Yee had tells me that they weren't even classified at all.

It is not unreasonable to guess that a map of Camp X would be integral to the work of a prison Chaplain.

I think this turned into a total Charlie Foxtrot and upon inspection of the " evidence" is soon became apparent that they had squat. General Miller's " national security" explanation was just a convenient way to make this embarassment go away.

Something is amiss in a case when you start with treason and espionage and end up with porn downloader and adultery.

Roger that!

Administratively suspended when detained oh, so long ago.

Revoked under adverse information administrative procedures (never to come back and not even cleared for RUMINT now).

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