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USA TODAY/THE OLYMPIAN - May 16, 2004 Why Capt. Yee was charged remains mystery? By Laura Parker Accused of espionage, Army Capt. James Yee saw his notoriety bloom overnight. He was vilified on the airwaves and on the Internet as an operative in a supposed spy ring that aimed to pass secrets to al-Qaeda from suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Yee ministered to them. After his arrest, Yee was blindfolded, placed in manacles and taken to a Navy brig, where he spent 76 days in solitary confinement. Eight months later, all the criminal charges against the 36-year-old West Point graduate have melted away. A subsequent reprimand has been removed from his record. And while many legal analysts are questioning whether a security-conscious military over-reached in its investigation, Yee is back home at Fort Lewis, Wash., pondering what remains of his military career. Military officials involved in the case won't say what they thought they had on Yee, or why they pursued him with such zeal. Prosecutions are proceeding against three other men — two Arabic translators and an Army Reserve colonel — who worked at Guantanamo, where the military is holding nearly 600 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The decision to jail Yee was made by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, then commander of Guantanamo's detention camp. He oversaw the espionage investigations of all four men. He has since been transferred to Iraq, where he is now engulfed in the controversy involving prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. When the Army dropped six criminal counts against Yee in March, military officials said they did so to avoid making sensitive information public — not because he was innocent. An Army general stressed that again in April, when he took the unusual step of removing the case from Yee's permanent military record. But a growing number of critics say the Yee case demands further examination. The critics, who include former military judges and prosecutors well-versed in military law, say the case offers a chilling glimpse into military anxiety at a time of heightened concern about terrorism. "This is a case that's so obviously wrong that (even) people who don't know military law are, if not outraged, then very concerned about what happened," says Kevin Barry, a retired Coast Guard judge. "There apparently was no evidence. If they had the goods, they would have prosecuted." Like Barry, many of the critics suggest that the case collapsed not because of national security concerns, but because the evidence against Yee, whatever it was, didn't hold up. They wonder whether the military's threshold for suspicion at Guantanamo was such that benign behavior too easily could have been mistaken as sinister. Three other men stationed at Guantanamo Bay have been charged with mishandling classified materials: Ahmad al-Halabi, an Air Force translator, was arrested July 25. The Syrian-born U.S. citizen initially was charged with 30 counts that ranged from sneaking baklava to the prisoners to espionage and aiding the enemy. Last fall, 13 of the charges were dropped; the remaining 17 charges include mishandling classified materials and espionage. He awaits a court-martial, now set for June. Ahmed Mehalba, a civilian interpreter at Guantanamo, was arrested Sept. 29 at Boston's Logan International Airport after returning from Cairo. A Customs inspector found a CD-ROM in his luggage that appeared to contain hundreds of sensitive documents. He was indicted on federal charges of mishandling sensitive information and lying to investigators. Mehalba is being held without bail in a Massachusetts jail. No trial date has been set. Army Col. Jack Farr, 58, head of Guantanamo's prisoner interrogation unit, was arrested Oct. 11 and charged with mishandling intelligence and lying to investigators. Classified documents were allegedly found in his luggage at the end of his six-month tour. Farr is now at Fort Gordon, Ga., awaiting a preliminary hearing May 25 that will determine whether he will face a court-martial. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-05-16-yee-cover_x.htm |