James Yee
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
former United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
with the rank of captain. He is best known for being subject to an intense investigation by the United States, but all charges were later dropped.
Yee, a Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
, was born in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and raised in Springfield Township
Springfield Township, Union County, New Jersey
Township of Springfield is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population increased to a record high of 15,817....
, where he attended Jonathan Dayton High School
Jonathan Dayton High School
Jonathan Dayton High School is an American four-year comprehensive public high school in Springfield Township, in Union County, New Jersey, operating as part of the Springfield Public Schools...
. Yee graduated from West Point in 1990. Shortly afterward, he converted from Lutheran Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in 1991, undergoing religious training in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and meeting his wife Huda, a Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
, with whom he now has one child.
Guantanamo
In his appointed role as chaplain, Yee ministered to Muslim detainees held at Guantánamo Bay detention camp and received commendation from his superiors for his work. When returning from duty at the Guantanamo Bay Naval BaseGuantanamo Bay Naval Base
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located on of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba which the United States leased for use as a coaling station following the Cuban-American Treaty of 1903. The base is located on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas...
, he was arrested on September 10, 2003, in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, when a U.S. Customs agent found a list of Guantanamo detainees and interrogators among his belongings. He was charged with five offenses: sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, and failure to obey a general order
General order
In militaries, a general order is a published directive, originated by a commander, and binding upon all personnel under his command, the purpose of which is to enforce a policy or procedure unique to his unit's situation which is not otherwise addressed in applicable service regulations, military...
. These charges were later reduced to mishandling classified information in addition to some minor charges. He was then transferred to a United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
brig in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
. The government did not name the country or entity for whom it suspected Yee was spying.
All court-martial charges against Yee were dropped on March 19, 2004, with Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller "citing national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence," and he was released to resume his duties. Yee was then accused of adultery and storing pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
on a government computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
; and non-judicial punishment
Nonjudicial punishment
Non-judicial punishment in the United States military, is a form of military justice authorized by Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Non-judicial punishment or "NJP" permits commanders to administratively discipline troops without a court-martial...
under Article 15, UCMJ was imposed. His appeal to General Hill, Commander, United States Southern Command, was granted in April 2004. He left the US military with an honorable discharge in January, but he is still seeking an apology.
Yee was a sometime supervisor of former US Air Force Airman Ahmad Al Halabi
Ahmad Al Halabi
Ahmad Al Halabi is an American Muslim Airman who served in the U.S. Air Force. He was assigned an interpreter at the military detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Ahmad was accused and detained based on espionage related charges. All espionage charges were later dismissed...
, who was subsequently court-martialed for his misconduct.
After Guantanamo
In October 2005 Yee published his book, For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire.In it, Yee writes that he was kept in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
for seventy-six days, and that he was forced to undergo sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...
. He also wrote that General Geoffrey Miller routinely incited the guards to hate the detainees. He alleges being told of mistreatment of prisoners. Yee argues that most of the detainees had little or no intelligence value about Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida's inner circle:
In July 2006, Yee was stopped at the border while returning from a trip to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, to see Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
. It was Yee's first trip outside the U.S. since he was discharged from the army. He was detained at the border for 75 minutes. Yee commented, "Perhaps this is an indication I'm still of interest to the federal government."
On October 19, 2007, Syrian television broadcast its interview with Yee, in Arabic, where he repeated detainees' claims of Koran abuse on the part of the U.S. military.
In December 2007 Yee made a statement on Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks
David Hicks
David Matthew Hicks is an Australian who was convicted by the United States of America Guantanamo Military Commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on charges of providing material support for terrorism...
, who he regularly counselled while working at Guantanamo Bay. He said that he did not feel Hicks was a threat to Australia, and that "Any American soldier who has been through basic training has had 50 times more training than this guy."
Yee was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention
2008 Democratic National Convention
The United States 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform and officially nominated its candidates for President and Vice President of the United States. The convention was held in Denver,...
from the 9th Congressional District of the state of Washington
Washington's 9th congressional district
Washington's 9th congressional district encompasses a long, somewhat narrow area in western Washington that largely follows Interstate 5 through the densely populated central Puget Sound region, from Olympia in the south to Renton in the north. Since 1997, the 9th District has been represented in...
, pledged to support Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, and actually cast a nominating ballot.
Yee continues to accept invitations to speak about his Guantanamo experiences from around the world.
External links
- JusticeForYee.com
- Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly Deborah Potter interview PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
October 7, 2005 - Fmr. Army Chaplain James Yee on the Abuse of Prisoners at Guantánamo, His Wrongful Imprisonment and Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the Military - Democracy Now (audio/video) (1 hour)
- The Strange Case of Chaplain Yee, New York Review of Books (December 15, 2005)
- Suspicion in the Ranks, Seattle Times
- 余上尉父母纽约筹款 chinapressnewyork.com.
- Mercury News article on the dropping of charges against Yee
- USA Today cover story on the dropping of charges
- The Ordeal of Chaplain Yee USA Today. (May 16, 2004)
- Muslim U.S. Army Chaplain Resigning, Wants Apology, Reuters. (Aug 3, 2004)
- How Dubious Evidence Spurred Relentless Guantánamo Spy Hunt, New York Times. (Dec 19, 2004)
- Muslim Chaplain Recalls Guantánamo Ordeal, NewsdayNewsdayNewsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, October 4, 2005 (or http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/12817254.htm - American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council (AMAF and VAC)
- Download MP3 or listen to James Yee interviewed by The Progressive magazine