Yee stayed seven month in detention before charges were dropped

WASHINGTON, March 20 (IslamOnline.net) – The U.S. military announced dropping all charges against James Yee, a Muslim American chaplain arrested last year for allegedly mishandling classified information, press reports said Saturday, March 20.

The case against Captain Yee, who officials once suggested was part of an espionage ring, had become a lingering embarrassment for the Pentagon, The New York Times said.

Yee's lawyer Eugene Fidell said the resolution demonstrated that Captain Yee had prevailed in his fight.

"This represents a long overdue vindication," Fidell was quoted by the Times as saying.

He added, however, that Captain Yee was still owed an apology.

The lawyer suggested that the Army was simply trying to sweep its mistakes under the rug by asserting that it dropped the charge of mishandling classified documents to keep information from becoming public.

In a statement released from the United States Southern Command in Miami, the military said it would not proceed with a trial on the charge of mishandling classified data because to do so could expose sensitive evidence to public view.

The military said Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the Guantanamo detention center, where Yee has been working, had decided to dismiss the charge because of "national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence".

In doing so, General Miller rejected Captain Yee's proposal to undergo a debriefing with a polygraph examiner on the question of how he might have dealt with classified material in exchange for an honorable discharge, according to the Times.

The remaining charges of adultery and possession of pornography against Captain Yee, were also dropped.

Fidell said there was no reason that a trial could not have been conducted, as the lawyers for both sides had high security clearances and no information needed to have been publicly exposed.

Not 'Violent'

Yee changed his name to Youssef after embracing Islam in 1990 about the time he served in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War.

At Guantanamo, where more than 600 detainees are being held, he counseled to the detainees.

He arranged for the Muslim call to prayer to be played over the sound system of the center five times a day and for meals to be served outside the fasting hours of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

After quitting the military, Yee spent four years studying Islam in Damascus, Syria, before returning to the U.S. as a trained Imam.

Following the September 11 attacks, Youssef became active on the media circuit, giving interviews about the peaceful nature of Islam and condemning the strikes.

"Islam comes from a word, which means peace," he told Voice of America radio in October 2001.

"So when people like to characterize Islam as being violent, again they are harping off what they see on television, what they see in the movies, without studying about Islam from the traditional sources of Islam, the Koran, and the prophetic traditions of the prophet Mohammed and the sources of Islam."

"An act of terrorism, the taking of innocent civilian lives, is prohibited by Islam, and whoever has done this needs to be brought to justice, whether he is Muslim or not," Yee said at the time.

Seven-Month Detention

Yee was detained on September 10 at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville on suspicion of espionage after customs inspectors had allegedly found papers in his luggage that they said were suspicious and might have had classified information.

Officials first suggested his participation in a plot to infiltrate the base and told his lawyers that they might seek the death penalty.

But gradually the case fell apart. He was charged with transporting classified information without a required secure container - far less serious than espionage - and placed in solitary confinement in a naval brig for nearly three months while the military completed its investigation.

The case was repeatedly postponed, ostensibly to provide an opportunity to review the materials, and Yee was then released, said the Times.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, had said he was concerned Yee's arrest would provoke ill-feeling.

"There are those in our society who love to question the patriotism of American Islamics and this unfortunately will give them ammunition to do that, no matter what the facts of the case are," he said.

Yee's detention is only the latest controversy to hit the chaplain program, which oversees the approximately 12 Islamic imams in the U.S. military.

Prominent Muslim American activist Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, one of the founders of American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council selecting chaplains for the military, was detained in October last year

Amoudi dismissed the charges of dealing with "terrorist groups" as "politically motivated" lies. He is to face trial in April.