How many times have you noticed an article in the newspaper or on TV about some terrorist suspects being apprehended? Caught them. Another attack prevented. Phew! We’re safe again.
But of course, some of those arrests include the Lackawana 5, and Iyman Faris. Add to the list the horribly frightening and terrifying Captain James J. Yee.
Captain Yee was a chaplain at the detention camp for foreign combatants of the war in Afghanistan in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Captain Yee joined the army years ago, left the army and became a Moslem, and then rejoined the army recently as a chaplain. The army liked to brag about Yee. He was emblem of their enlightened diversity, tolerance, and broad-mindedness. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay to minister to the Moslem prisoners of war being held there under obscure and nebulous of legal rationalizations.
Then Yee joined up with Osama Bin Laden and began laying nefarious plots for incendiary activities at Guantanamo. I’m not sure what he was planning exactly. An escape would be difficult– from Cuba. He and his evil Islamic radicals could take over the base, I suppose, and litter.
Anyway, Captain Yee was arrested and charged with committing terrorist acts and there was a trial and convincing evidence was presented and Captain Yee defended himself to no avail and was convicted and sent to prison.
Or maybe not.
You see, that kind of eventuality would require real evidence and testimony. It would require reasonable people to look at his evidence and say, well, by golly, this guy committed a crime.
Much, much more convenient to simply hold a press conference and announce that some more terrorists have been stopped dead in their tracks — meaning Mr. Yee among others– and then charge him with littering. Well, not exactly littering. Adultery.
Yes, adultery.
Yes, adultery. For which he was held in a brig in solitary confinement, usually in leg irons, for 76 days. Well, not really for the adultery. The adultery, you see, is what they found evidence for. They held him because some idiot thought he was plotting to overthrow the U.S. government.
Do you care about the adultery? Do you care about the miscarriage of justice? You probably don’t. I’m a cynic. I bet you won’t care until it happens to you or somebody close to you. In the meantime, George W. Bush and John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge are your heroes. Do we have John Ashcroft actions figures yet?
I do care, and that’s why I’m taking a few minutes here to write about him, even if I doubt it will make any difference to most people out there.
If you feel safer tonight knowing that George W. Bush and the boys are out there like hawks guarding your personal safety and security, repeat, to yourself, the word “adultery”.
Or, “improperly gathering military information”, as one of Mr. Yee’s supposed cohorts have been charged with. Read that line carefully if you think it sounds sinister. What it really means is, we couldn’t find any real evidence against this guy so we charged him with something we could charge anybody with so as to not look like total idiots…. oops. Too late.
Captain Yee was arrested September 10, 2003, at Jacksonville Naval Air Station. When it was discovered that Airman Al- Halabi had had dinner with Captain Yee, he too was arrested, and charged with Grand Malarkey, or whatever it is that means that he was plotting to commit terrorist or otherwise nasty and unpleasant things of a hostile nature. Airman Al- Halabi– don’t laugh– was charged with aiding the enemy, which carries a death penalty.
As near as anyone with any brains can figure out, Al-Halabi was polite to the prisoners, which is what initially raised suspicions. Then he had a private dinner with Captain Yee, whom they thought was…. never mind. Anyway, Al-Halabi is an Arab name, so most Americans won’t care what happens to him. Lock him up. Leg irons. What the hell, hang him.
If you can’t figure it out for yourself just yet, here is a sure indicator of when prosecutors have gone nuts: it’s when they inspect themselves and go “eureka”. Of course, they never, as in the case of Colonel Jack Farr, actually arrest and incarcerate themselves. That would be unseemly. But Colonel Jack Farr, one of the men investigating Captain Yee, was caught also “wrongfully transporting classified material without the proper security container.” I’m not sure who caught him– the New York Times didn’t say. But it did say that he wouldn’t be treated like Yee or Al-Halabi.
That’s because he’s holding the gun.