: Charges Against Yee Dropped, But The Damage Is Done

Usually, when a trial (especially a military one) involves “national security concerns,” you would expect it to be railroaded through, possibly invoking the use of “secret evidence” or preventing access to a lawyer. Those security concerns, however, led to a vindication of sorts in the embarassing case of Captain James Yee. Yee, a former chaplain at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay who was arrested on suspicion of espionage but later charged with mishandling classified data, storing porn on his government-issued laptop, and adultery, unexpectedly found himself free of criminal charges, ostensibly due to government fears that the release of evidence would threaten national security. (The same evidence was mistakenly sent to Yee’s legal team, who reviewed the documents and found no classified information before returning them to government prosecutors who sheepishly asked for them back.) Even the easy-to-prove charge of storing porn on his laptop (deleting is isn’t enough to conceal evidence) was dropped. “Chaplain Yee has won,” said his lawyer Eugene Fidell. “The Army’s dismissal of the classified information charges against him represents a long-overdue vindication. We reject the notion that security concerns played any role in this decision.” So what happens now? Yee will return to service as a chaplain at Ft. Lewis, near his hometown of Olympia, Washington, where he served before being called up for service at Guantanamo. He may also face administrative, non-judicial actions related to the adultery/pornography charges. Meanwhile, family and friends are asking for an apology. “This has been a really bad experience,” said Yee’s wife Huda Suboh from her home in Olympia, where she lives with their daughter. “It broke my heart. It’s hard when someone talks about your husband like that.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.