Former Guantanamo chaplain shares his story

He was accused of spying and aiding the enemy.

So James Yee – a West Point graduate, military chaplain at Guantanamo Bay and rising star in the U.S. Army – found himself under arrest in September 2003. For 76 days, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement. He was threatened with the death penalty.

Less than a year later, the military dropped the charges.

And Yee, who retired in 2005 with an honorable discharge, is still waiting for an apology.

“This is my struggle for justice,” Yee said during a phone interview from Olympia, where he lives with his wife and 7-year-old daughter.

Yee, author of “For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire,” has been traveling the country to share his experience as a chaplain at Guantanamo and how he became the target of suspicion because of his Muslim faith.

He tells audiences about the stories of mistreatment he heard from Guantanamo detainees. He speaks of his own mental and emotional anguish while imprisoned in a Naval brig. He sheds light on the prejudice that continues to hurt religious and ethnic minorities and the erosion of civil liberties in post-Sept. 11 America.

“This happened to me,” he said. “It could happen to anyone.”

No official public apology has been given to the former chaplain, who claims his constitutional rights were violated by the very country he served.

The Pentagon’s inspector general is still investigating how and why Yee was falsely accused and the subsequent treatment he endured. The investigation was supposed to be finished last October, he said, but it has constantly been put on hold. “I suspect it’s because the military does not want to disclose how badly they handled my case,” Yee said. “The public has been outraged over what happened to me.”

Born in New Jersey to second-generation Chinese American parents, Yee and his four siblings were raised in a Lutheran household and attended church every Sunday. It wasn’t until after he graduated from West Point in 1990 that he became interested in Islam.

He learned about the religion from a friend and was immediately drawn to its simplicity. “When I became Muslim, I converted solely based on believing in that simple belief of one God,” he told Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly in October 2005.

While serving in the military during the aftermath of the first Gulf War, Yee went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and was moved by the diversity of Muslims who shared the universal experience of hajj.

He ended up leaving active duty to pursue the study of Islam even further. He went to a school in Syria, where he met his wife, Huda. In 2000, he returned to the Army as a Muslim chaplain.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Yee was propelled into the spotlight for his work on educating others about his faith. He was promoted to become the Muslim chaplain for the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, where he advised camp commanders on the religious practices of the detainees, some of whom were suspected Al-Qaida terrorists and members of the Taliban.

Yee also objected to abuses inflicted upon the prisoners.

He soon found himself the target of anti-Muslim sentiment, he said. After being officially recognized twice for outstanding performance, Yee was arrested and charged with several offenses, including espionage and “aiding the enemy.”

Terms such as “enemy” and “the war on terror,” a phrase often used by the president and other Americans, can be misleading, Yee said during a recent phone interview. By using these terms, people allow injustices – such as the ones committed against him – to continue.

“Most of the Muslim world perceives this war to be a war on Islam,” he said. “It’s not only among Muslims, but anti-American sentiment is growing all over the world. … After 9/11, we had the sympathy of the entire world, but we quickly squandered that by implementing these irrational policies.”

His experience of being wrongly accused and thrown in prison traumatized his entire family, including his wife, who was led to the brink of suicide, he said.

While his faith in God bolstered him during that time, his faith in military leaders quickly eroded. He remains proud of the fact that he’s a West Point graduate and that others in his family have served in the U.S. armed forces, but he no longer trusts those in power.

“I am disturbed that there are people in the military who harbor negative feelings toward religious and ethnic minorities,” he said.

Since his book was published in 2005, Yee has earned a master’s degree in international studies and has delivered lectures to students, human rights organizations, interfaith communities and others throughout the country. He helped raise money and campaigned for Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress.

“I’m still devoted to American values,” he said. “I haven’t lost faith in diversity, tolerance and justice – the values embodied in the U.S. Constitution and the core beliefs of Islam.”

He hopes to spend the rest of his life promoting those ideals, he said.