MUSLIM ARMY CHAPLAIN ARRESTED: WATCH THIS STORY

[mburbank]

Captain James Yee, a military muslim chaplain serving in Guantanamo bay has been arrested and is being held without charges. Since this is a military arest of an active officer, they can hold him for 120 days without charges.

He was caught with diagrams of the holding cells and the names and number of the prisoners being held, things which the US has to date refused to reveal.

He is also accused of having unspecified ties with terrorists. He spent four years living in Damascus and is mrried to syrian islamic woman, so that pretty much means he's a terrorist. Think for a moment, though. Don't you think the army would have put this guy through the security clearance ringer before assigning him to Gauntanamo friggin' bay?

I say 'watch this story' because I think it highly likely that at the end of the 120 days, captain Yee will officially disapear. Any trial of him would need to be kept secret as the trial itself would need to introduce as evidence the very things the Government intends to keep secret. I think it most likely that Captain Yee will be declared an enemy combatant, and as happened with the 'dirty bomber' Jose Padilla, the embarassing fact that the governments case has little in the way of evidence that would stand up in court need never come to light. He will remain in a millitary brigg without access to lawyer and may never be heard from again.

Perhaps this guy IS a terrorist spy. But I think it's equally likely he's a whistle blower and intended to talk to reporters about conditions at camp x-ray and the nature of the prisoners, some of whom the government has admitted are children and some of who may have had nothing whatever to do with Al Quaeda and were captured believeing they were fighting the Northern Alliance. Now I understand that he's in the army, and if he intended tyo blow the whistle, he was breaking military law and should face court marshall. But I doubt that will ever happen. I think this guy is going to vanish for a long time.

[ScruU2wice]

What happened to that other guy who through a live grenade in to his barricks in iraq or something? I heard the story and i thought it would be far more publicised but all they had on the news was like a 10 second report on it and then moved on to something else. Do you have a link or something to where you read this article?

[sspadowsky]

Wow, Max. I kid you not, the very first thing I thought when I read the article about this guy was, "I bet he had some information that would make our military look very, very bad."

Let's think about this: Everyone in the world knows where Guantanamo Bay is. Most everyone knows what it is, and who is there. I kinda doubt that he's going to coordinate a terrorist attack on a heavily-guarded island, populated with Marines who are armed to the teeth.

I'm with Max on this one. Odds are, this guy was going to make some noise about what's really going on down there. Now he'll probably just become an unperson.

[Abcdxxxx]

We wouldn't be hearing about this at all if that was the plan. Just like you didn't hear about the guy who served in the Egyptian Army, and was caught actively working with Al Qaeda while serving in a VERY high up position of the US Military. I'm talking high security clearances, and access to all sorts of intelligence info. That guy didn't even get a snippet on the news.

So yeah, if this is true, he was either going to leak the info to the press or an international agency...or he was going to provide information to terrorist organizations about who and what the US has on them. Or maybe he was going to collect the info and shop it around to the highest bidder. I really don't know why you'd put a Cleric with Syrian connections out in Gaun. Bay.

Isn't it common for Religious reps in the military to get involved with all sorts of back biting politics, and near blackmail situations?

[mburbank]

Okay, todays addition to the story. It now turns out that another unamed officer at Guantanamo was 'detained', though not charged a month ago, for a similar offense to yee. This makes me ask how many other soldiers has the government made disappear and without access to lawyers, what hope do they have to ever be head from gain. The airforce says there may be more arrests coming. Are our forces at Guntanamo actually compromised, or is there something going on there that the Pentagon is willing to make US soldiers vanish to keep the public from knowing?

[mburbank]

As of 8 minutes ago, the soldier in question has a name and has been charged.

Read on.


By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - An Air Force translator at the U.S. prison camp for suspected terrorists has been charged with espionage and aiding the enemy — counts that could carry the death penalty, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, facing 32 criminal charges, spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said.

Al-Halabi worked as an Arabic language translator at the prison camp for al-Qaida and Taliban suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Shavers said. The Air Force enlisted man knew the Muslim chaplain at the prison who was arrested earlier this month, but it is unclear whether the two arrests are linked, Shavers said.

The translator was arrested more than six weeks before the chaplain, he said.

Al-Halabi is charged with eight counts related to espionage, three counts of aiding the enemy, 11 counts of disobeying a lawful order, nine counts of making a false official statement and one count of bank fraud.

Espionage and aiding the enemy are military charges that can carry the death penalty, said Eugene Fidell, a civilian lawyer in Washington and president of the National Institute of Military Justice. The commanding general in charge of al-Halabi's case would have to decide whether military prosecutors could seek the death penalty in his case, Fidell said.

If the death penalty is an option, the 12-member military jury that hears the case would have to vote unanimously to impose it, Fidell said.

Al-Halabi was based at Travis Air Force Base in California and assigned to a logistics unit there, Shavers said.

Pentagon officials said an investigation into possible security breaches at Guantanamo Bay continues.

About 660 suspected al-Qaida or Taliban members are imprisoned at the U.S. Navy base. American officials are interrogating them for information on the terrorist network.

The military has classified many details about the prison camp and the detainees and has not identified any of the men being held there. Military officials have said the fight against terrorism could be hampered if terrorist groups got such information.

The Muslim military chaplain who ministered to the inmates at the camp, Army Capt. Yousef Yee, was arrested Sept. 10 in Jacksonville, Fla., after getting off a flight from Guantanamo Bay.

A senior law enforcement official said authorities confiscated classified documents Yee was carrying.

Yee, 35, is being held at a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. A military magistrate ruled on Sept. 15 there was enough evidence to hold Yee for up to two months while the military investigates.

Al-Halabi was arrested July 23 at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, also after getting off a flight from the base in Cuba. The next day, military authorities flew al-Halabi to Travis Air Force Base. At some point later, he was transferred to Vandenberg, Shavers said.





Something is very wrong here, either way. If security was breeched at Guantanamo, then our higest military security clearance processes are frighteningly flawed. If not, then the military is willing to go to the most extreme lengths to keep information US soldiers were willing to risk their freedom, even their lives to reveal.

[sspadowsky]

I like how they're starting to refer to the chaplain as "Youssef Yee," instead of "James Yee," as they called him when he was first arrested. It's easier for Americans to get pissed at, and less likely to question the arrest of, a guy when his name is "Youssef."

[mburbank]

If I spoke Arabic and was stationed at Guantanamo right now, I'd be putting in for a transfer.

[GAsux]

Maybe they're actually guilty. How crazy would that be?

[Abcdxxxx]

Kinda hard to arrest a guy using his nickname "James" when his real name is Youseff or something other then "James". Sometimes, people do act out of sensible logic, y'know.

Do you really think every single arrest of a Muslim for suspicions of a criminal act automatically means someone's racial profiling, or trying to create public resentment? Kinda sounds like a few of you do. That's not compassion, that's stupidity.

[VinceZeb]

Oh man, a traitor got arrested for being a traitor! The shock, the horror! I bet Heim Ashcroft is out there with his SS forces trying to round up the poor Arab-Muslims as we speak!

[mburbank]

Some liberatarian you are. Yee has not been arrested. He has been 'detained' without charge and can be held for up to 120 days without any legal proceedings at all. No evidence against has been seen by a judge and he is not allowed access to even a military lawyer.

Traitor? Maybe. It doesn't surprise me that you don't believe in 'innocent until proven guilty', because it's a basic American principle and you are a totalitarian.

Lets see, you believe exactly what your told by the government and you think it's fine for the Government to make a citizen and soldier vanish. Yep. Thems some fine liberatarin values. Has your brown shirt come bck from the cleaners yet?

[kellychaos]

Max, as good as your intentions are, I'd like to play devil's advocate and have you remember that this soldier's civil rights are under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ (Uniform Code Of Military Justice) and, therefore, more limited. While the info that the limited and varied breeches of security may have culled may seem, at best, laughable to you when taken individually; may actually form a nice, whole coherent puzzle when given to the right sources. Just something as trivial as providing baklava, news from home, ect to the troops is an immense morale boost to soldiers who've been denied such for a while and can give them the fortitude to go on resisting. I'm not sure of who all they're detaining there and for what reason and neither are you. What I am sure of is that I'm loathe to take an organization like the ACLU at their word when they may well be just as slanted as their military PAO counterparts.

[VinceZeb]

Kelly, the UCMJ is great. If he is guilty, he is dead. Woo-freakin-hoo.

[kellychaos]

Shhhh Vinth ... adults are speaking.

[VinceZeb]

Shhhh Vinth ... adults are speaking.

Where are the speaking, Kelly?

[mburbank]

Kelly, don't let that make you feel bad about what you just said. Having Vinth agree with you or support you in any way about annything doesn't automatically make you wrong, or taint you personally in any way. It's just painful, and it passes. Like Kidney Stones.

I'm aware of UMCJ, and I know soldiers are subject to it, something an actual Liberatarian would reject. But then I'm not. I didn't get any of my info from the ACLU, and they have their own axe to grind. I fully admit the possability that these guys are dangerous terrorists.

But, if that's true, it means our hughest levels of military security suck, which is a little scary.

And we'll never know. If courts marshall are carrried out, I'll be very surprised, and they will almost certainly be secret.

[VinceZeb]

I never said I was a libertarian. I said I was a conservative with libertarian leanings. Get it right. Or extreme left, as in your case.

[kellychaos]

Often, under the guise of a "security risk", the proceedings of such trials remain "confidential". So it goes. :/

[mburbank]

Yeah, I know, you're Liberatarian about your right to post porn.

You're not even a good conservative, Linda. You're a yippy little chi hua hua that thinks it's a big dog. You do exactly as your told barking as loud as you can while trembling and hiding under the couch.

[VinceZeb]

It must cramp your brain to think up all of those clever metaphors and analogies, Max.

[mburbank]

It's pretty easy, really, but thanks for being so concerned, Martha.

[Abcdxxxx]

Burbank - You keep talking about this "citizen and soldier" vanishing. So far he's one of the few people on that island directly linked to a named criminal offense. We know who he is, and what he is accused of doing. So isn't it more likely that the US military wants us to know what went on for whatever agenda reasonings they have? The citizens and soldiers that are going to vanish, aren't going to be people you've ever heard of in a Reuters report.

[mburbank]

There are two people I'm speaking of, both US citizens and both soldiers. The first, Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi , was taken into custody ten weeks ago. This information was only given to the press (as far as I've been able to determine) at the detention of James Yee. I say detention because Yee has not been charged. Again, as far as I can tell, Halabi was only charged the day before yesterday, after news of his detention was released. As early as two days ago, Halabi's name had not been released. This is what leads me to at least question if we were ever have supposed to have heard of Halabi.

I don't have any conclusions yet. All I suspect (and I certinbly could be wrong) is that you're about as likely to see a trial for these two as you are Jose Padilla.

I think this story is very hot either way it goes. Either Camp X-ray security, which should have been investigated to the highest degree, has been compromised, or avery big screw up is in the process of becoming public.





WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Following the arrests of two U.S. servicemen suspected of spying, at least two other members of the U.S. military are being closely watched in an investigation of possible espionage activities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said Wednesday.

The Pentagon is broadening its investigation and trying to determine whether a conspiracy is involved, according to the officials.

On Tuesday, Pentagon officials said Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi -- who worked at the U.S. Navy base where suspected al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists are held -- had been arrested and charged with espionage and aiding the enemy.

Al Halabi's attorney denied the charges against his client Wednesday. "Airman al Halabi is not a spy," Air Force Maj. James E. Key told CNN. "He is not a terrorist, and he and his family are shocked that he is accused of taking actions that would be contrary to the United States' interest."

Another member of the military who also worked at Guantanamo -- Islamic chaplain and Army Capt. James Yee -- is being held on suspicion of espionage and treason in at a stockade in Charleston, South Carolina. Yee has not been charged.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the men are linked in a conspiracy, official said.

According to al Halabi's charge sheet, he is also accused of failing to report unauthorized communications between U.S. troops and detainees, who are designated as enemy combatants. More than 600 suspects, brought to the base after the war in Afghanistan, are housed there.

Al Halabi was arrested July 23 because he allegedly had classified information on his laptop computer about detainees and facilities at the Guantanamo Bay base, Pentagon officials said. He is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

An American of Syrian descent, al Halabi allegedly e-mailed information to people in Syria that included details about the base's flight schedule, officials said.

Al Halabi was charged with 11 counts of failing to obey a lawful general order or regulation; three counts of aiding the enemy, four counts of espionage; nine counts of making a false statement; bank fraud and violations of the Federal Espionage Act.

Al Halabi served nine months at Guantanamo Bay as a translator and was arrested about seven weeks before Yee was taken into custody.

Military authorities took Yee into custody September 10 at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Florida, while he was in possession of classified documents "that a chaplain shouldn't have," said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the documents included "diagrams of the cells and the facilities at Guantanamo."

In addition, Yee is suspected of having ties to radical Muslims in the United States who are under investigation, the official said.

[The_Rorschach]

Personally, regardless of his religious tendancies, the military is right in prosecuting Yee, and in fact must do so if only to uphold disciplinary standards. As a civilian, one is supposed to take incriminating evidence to the FBI, local police, McGruff truck whatever. . .In the military there is actually a prescribed operating procedure for how to deal with mismanagement and abuse of facilities, materials or men. Military personnell cannot act like Linda Tripp, hoard damning information, and take it to the press. Without formal consent, no service member is to act in any capacity which would represent an official source of information to the public.

They are required, may I repeat required, to report infractions first to their chain of command, and, should this not bring about change, to am impartial I.G. who would then lead and inquest into the outlined charges of misconduct. Even failing these there are prescribed measures which can be taken in order to ensure justice is served. There is no excuse for his having held schematices of the base and information pertaining to its occupants. There is no excuse for fratenizating between US troops and detainees. There is no excuse for possessing classified information outside of specified compartments. Furthermore, if he is a translater, that means he studied over at DLI, and if that is the case, after taking his DLAB, he should have reported all ties he had to anyone outside of the United States, and been responsible for updating that information quarterly. Terrorists or no, failure to offer such information is incriminating in and of itself.

[kellychaos]

Well said.

[mburbank]

Shach, unless you either know something I don't about the particulars of this case, or for some other reason believe there is no possability the charges as they have been portrayed are false, I'd withold Judgement.

Suppose, for the sake of argument, prisoners have been tortured to death, with your superiors knowledge. What might happen to you if you were to report this to your superior, or to try bucking up the chain of command?

Might you not feel a moral obligation to do whatever you could?

Granted, that's purely hypothetical, but in the absence of any evidence at all, I'd urge you to assume innocence until guilt is proven.

All I'm saying, is this smells like a story to me, and a big one. Maybe it's all very simple, very cut and dried, and it will all come out in the wash. But personally, I think the intense secrecy surround camp X-ray has more to do with what's going on there than it does National security. In the absence of evidence, I will assume innocence on the part of our leadership. But it's disturbing to me that our leadership is so heavily invested in maintaining a constant lack of evidence.

[The_Rorschach]

Quite right Max, I simply wished to point out that should the charges against him be proven. . .His guilt can not be mitigated by intent, no matter how earnest it may be.

[mburbank]

That's true. It should be remembered though, that obedience to orders doesn't always wash as a defense when those who followed them go on trial.

[kellychaos]

That's true. It should be remembered though, that obedience to orders doesn't always wash as a defense when those who followed them go on trial.

You'd be suprised how far it CAN go, Max. Considering the fact that the detainees at GTMO are "in the spotlight", so to speak, of the world, do you really think that those in command are really going to chance any mallevolent, behind-the-scenes conspiracy? In addition, with our country being the so-called leader in the fight to ensure human rights, do you think we'd risk this level of hypocrisy for all the world to see? Even though they may hold their cards a little closer to the vest, the military PAO is just as susceptible to media scrutiny as any civilian entity. Really Max, that sounds more like a movie of the week and less like your normal, rational thought.

[VinceZeb]

"Really Max, that sounds more like a movie of the week and less like your normal, rational thought."

Kelly needs to do standup.

[kellychaos]

"Really Max, that sounds more like a movie of the week and less like your normal, rational thought."

Kelly needs to do standup.

Vinth, the only time that I'd stand up for you is to unzip my fly while I'm pissing on your grave.

[VinceZeb]

You would piss on the grave of someone that is just an avatar and text on a message board?

Man, you're warped.

[Zhukov]

That comeback was complete and utter shit.

[VinceZeb]

Wasn't supposed to be a comeback; it was meant as an observation.

[mburbank]

Kelly, if you'll slap the irriating dung fly buzzing around I'll try to answer your point, that being the nature of discourse.


We don't know how many people are there.
We don't know their names
We don't know their ages, though the Army admits
We don't know when or if they will be charged
The only knowledge we have of them comes from the people holding them.
No one else is allowed any contact.


THAT's the spotlight?

[kellychaos]

This is kind of a catch-22. You're stuck between the public's right to information while at the same time you want to maintain security to protect the information, u.s. troops and possibly those being detained. Hard decisions really. Where would you draw the line? I'll give you a hypothetical, assuming that the Al Qaeda organization doesn't know who's being detained (we hope). What would happen if one or more of the detainees started opening up with the info like a faucet and the Al Qaeda knew, or had an idea who, it might be? How is that serving us or that particular detainee? To extend the point further, if all the detainees even thought that their identities were known, how likely do you think they would be to give any info at all with the knowledge that once they give the info the best that they can hope for is protection by us?