Reversal of fortune
Yee was not exactly cleared. Back in March 2004, AP reported that "in dismissing the charges, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, which operates the detention center, cited 'national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence' if the case proceeded."
National security concerns would arise from the release of the evidence if Yee's case proceeded? That's a very strange statement, and it cries out for an explanation (none was ever forthcoming, to my knowledge), but it is not quite the same thing as saying, "This man was completely innocent, and should never have been charged." Maybe they just don't want to admit a mistake. But questions persist.
In any case, this article says that Yee saw the Qur'an desecrated at Guantanamo, but in this report, he says of the desecration reports (which he was and is eagerly passing on) that he did not see any desecration himself:
The Korans were thrown on the floor by guards when they conducted cell searches. It has been reported and I have learned now that interrogators also were throwing the Korans on the floor or stomping on it. This was happening when I was there, and this was an issue.Interviewer: You actually saw this happening?
Yee: I didn't see it because I wasn't a part of the intelligence operation, but I was aware directly from the prisoners, when they came to me with the complaints and concerns.
But now some time has passed, and memories have grown hazy, and lo and behold, he did see the Qur'an desecration:
"Denver latest stop on Yee's unlikely journey," by Danny Westneat for the Seattle Times, August 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):
DENVER — Nobody's come as far as James Yee to be a delegate to this Democratic National Convention.Five years ago, Yee, an Army chaplain of Muslim faith, was shackled and tossed into solitary confinement for 76 days because the U.S. government felt — wrongly — that he was a terrorist sympathizer and spy.
Now the Olympia man is here, ready to cast his vote as part of the Washington state contingent for Barack Obama.
His story is a useful reminder, he says, of the danger of America chucking aside civil liberties. [...]
"There is some worry that I might be a lightning rod," Yee said Sunday. " 'Accused terrorist spy is national delegate for Obama,' " he intoned, imagining how Fox News might broadcast his story.
Yee, formerly a chaplain at Fort Lewis, is something of a celebrity at the convention. Fox, PBS, The Washington Post all have called. It's because of what happened to him at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, back when America was gripped in a war-on-terror fever.
Yee was no radical. A West Point grad, he was deeply committed to both his Muslim faith and the military — "serving both God and country," he says. He voted for George W. Bush in 2000.
Then he was sent to Gitmo in the fall of 2002, to minister to prisoners and be an unofficial Muslim spokesman for the U.S. military.
By the spring of 2003, though, he was objecting to the treatment of detainees and the "anti-Muslim hostility" that he says pervaded the place. He felt it came down from the top — from the "you're either with us or against us" doctrine that he now describes as "a terrorist mentality."
Some intelligence officers suspected Yee of conspiring with the enemy, and he was arrested that September.
Spying, espionage, mutiny and sedition — all were alleged by the government. Infamously, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. — whom Yee will probably meet at this convention — said Yee's arrest was proof that al-Qaida had infiltrated the U.S. military.
"Basically, they said I was a traitor," Yee says.
The case fell apart almost immediately. Eventually all charges were dropped, and in 2005 he quit the Army with an honorable discharge. [...]
"Some of it is because I challenged the system at Guantánamo," he said, "but most of it was because I am Muslim."
So now, in 2008, does he feel welcome in American politics?
It is not far from Yee's mind that the Obama campaign in the spring asked two women wearing Muslim head scarves to move so they wouldn't appear in the TV shots of the crowd behind him.
But Yee says he got active in politics after quitting the Army because he feels Muslims must "speak up, volunteer and engage," or continue to be marginalized.
"I can see why Muslims wanted to go underground after 9/11," Yee said. "But I have found that if you speak up in politics you can have a positive influence." [...]
When he says this, we are sitting outside what's billed as the first-ever "interfaith" event for a Democratic convention. We listen as Christians, Jews, Buddhists and, yes, Muslims, openly profess their faiths.
Then there's a reading from the Quran, the same book Yee says he saw desecrated, as a form of psychic abuse, at Guantánamo. It's a passage about how the true nature of righteousness is more about compassion than "whether you turn your face towards East or West."
Yee taps the passage.
"That they'll now read from the Quran at a national political convention — that shows we have come a long way in this country," he says.
"That I'm here — that shows it, too."
"Basically, they said I was a traitor," Yee says.
Yes, either a traitor to your cult or a traitor to your country. Which is it?
Then there's a reading from the Quran,
Wonder who decided which passage to read. My vote would have been for a different paragraph. 9:29 comes to mind.
That they'll now read from the Quran at a national political convention — that shows we have come a long way in this country," he says.
Yes, a long way down. I just hope we can pull out of our dive before we hit bottom.
"That they'll now read from the Quran at a national political convention — that shows we have come a long way in this country," he says.
"That I'm here — that shows it, too."
Print that out.
Then put that in your undecided neighbor's pipe and have him smoke it. But not before you have made sure he reads a little. Sura 9 will do. The tale of little Aisha will do. The hadith about killing Jews will do. All three would be good. And, in a spirit of self-promotion, I will recommend "Islam For Infidels" that can be found on-line, and printed out.
Explain to that friend, that relative, that colleague, that person you meet on the subway or in the checkout line, that if he -- or she -- will only begin to read a little, only begin to find out a little, only begin to unstop his ears and uncover his eyes, things seen as if through a glass darkly will be made plain. He can go to the websites that deal with such matters, such as this one, and the less partisan those websites are, the better. Or he can go to the websites run by the unfoolable and relentless ex-Muslims, such as www.answering-islam.org or www.faithfreedom.org.
He simply has to be encouraged to discover what so many have convinced themselves, without evidence, simply must be, has to be, because if it isn't then the whole situation becomes too painful, too worrisome, too but-what-can-we-possibly-do-about-it because of the dismal quality, the ignorance, lack of intelligence, and lack of imagination of our taking-a-leadership-role boys, our so-called "leaders," right left and center.
Does anyone in his right mind think that Yee's notion of serving "God and country" is what he wants us to take it to mean, as he practices the usual taqiyya, about a different god, and a very different country. He would like a country where there are no obstacles to the spread, and dominance, of Islam. And that means he is willing to use, for now, the constitutionally-enshrined rights of individuals, but would throw them out in a minute once they were no longer needed to assure the triumph of Islam, for they offend, in letter and spirit, against the Shari'a, against Islam.
No,= one in his right mind, who has been paying attention, does?.
So why was he seen fit to be selected as a delegate -- did no one among his fellow delegates think this was inappropriate, unwise, dangerous? -- and what's more, did no one in the business of accepting his credentials try to head off this disaster -- think of the cameras focussing on "revert" Yee, who has not (read carefully the remark of the American officer) been cleared, even if he has not been convicted,of doubtful doings down Guantanamo way.
What do those bigshots in the Democratic Party take him, that convert to Islam, for?
And do they think that such a cavalier attitude toward Muslims who are not Muslimis-for-identification-purposes-only, but rather the Deep Believers, the converts (the converts are often much more fanatical than those who have simply been born, through no fault of their own, into Islam), especially one such as the former military chaplain Yee, inspires confidence on the part of those who would like some assurances that, at long last, after the sentimental messianism, and the Iftar dinner, and the Religion of Peace business in which Bush, Rice, and Karen Hughes all wallowed, we will be getting sober realists, and not simply those who will subsit one kind of idiocy for another, even more dangerous, kind?
What do they take us for?
The Democrat party has stepped into the twilight zone.
I see he's wearing an aimpoint.
... err, I mean crescent.
He should feel right at home at the convention: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/022372.php#comments
Maybe William Ayers will give one of his inspirational speeches on patriotism.
— from the "you're either with us or against us"
that's what they say to us, kuffars. i'd like to see it thrown back in their faces
Yee got the part about 'a lot of hostility' right.
Since it's the Democrat Party convention, maybe the following verses - 18:26 or 42:10 - would have been more appropriate about what the Quran says about Democracy. Or even better - 8:39, 9:5, 9:28-29, 9:111, and a number of other verses.
Is it possible to get an Imam in the convention who'll read such passages, instead of the unstated one above?
For an officer, particularly a chaplain, to commit adultery and store pornography on a government computer and still get out of the military with an honorable discharge is proof the military is biased these days--in favor of muslims. No way that would happen for an "average" American soldier. Yee got the soft-touch by PC dhimmis afraid for their careers once he became a cause celeb for the treason crowd.
Yee slivered into Islam because he is at heart a duplicitous, hateful sleasebag, and he finally found a home there.
Any chance of reading the whole Qur'an? I know it would bore folks, but if you read the whole document, you can make an decision about whether it is "the religion of peace".
Is he a descendant of Korean migrants?
A while ago there was a story going round that some 40 Korean soldiers 'reverted' to Islam in Iraq.
Quite a scoop.
Imagine 40 trained fighting men return to their country with their new found faith and the intention to spread it.
This is but one of a miriad signes revealing the dismal state of this country.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
For an officer, particularly a chaplain, to commit adultery and store pornography on a government computer and still get out of the military with an honorable discharge is proof the military is biased these days--in favor of muslims. No way that would happen for an "average" American soldier. Yee got the soft-touch by PC dhimmis afraid for their careers once he became a cause celeb for the treason crowd.
Yee slivered into Islam because he is at heart a duplicitous, hateful sleasebag, and he finally found a home there.
Posted by: Max Publius at August 25, 2008 3:35 PM
How do you know about the adultery and pornography?
From the article -"Then there's a reading from the Quran, the same book Yee says he saw desecrated, as a form of psychic abuse, at Guantánamo."
Claims - usually entirely false - that the Quran has been 'desecrated' are made every time Muslim rabble-rousers want to whip up outrage and create a lynch mob.
For example, exactly the same claim was made in India just yesterday:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/25/2345205.htm?section=justin
I quote -
"The biggest demonstration took place in Handwara, 75 kilometres north of Srinagar where Muslims charged {Indian non-Muslim - dda} security personnel with desecrating the Quran, Islam's holy book.
"Authorities {i.e. the Indian non-Muslim authorities - dda} have denied the charge."
After everything I have learned here and elsewhere about Islam in the past two years, I believe the Indian authorities and I categorically disbelieve the Muslims.
I agree with Tanstaffls comment about boring, I am reading the history of Patton (carlo d estes) who also read the koran before operation torch and was bored by it.
Sales translation held my attention more mainly because of the many notes that explain much about the revelations that the entity called Gabriel was supposed to have made, and how they fit into the traditions of the day.
It is important that national security concerns were cited as the reason for shutting down the case, in the first wtc bombing one of the tactics that led to the capture of the mastermind was compromised, I would guess that Yees release was made as he was not as important to prosecute as the method that led to his discovery was important to keep secret.
I think that possibly Islamophobia might be at work in the choice of Yee as a delegate.
Those who are so afraid of Islam that they have adapted a posture of appeasement to Islam are acting mainly out of fear.
Which is why traditional liberal sacred cows such as the rights of women, seperation of church and state, and an abhorrence of supremacism are jettisoned in favor of appeasing Islamic superiors.
That many try to project their Islamophobia on people who are anything but fearful of Mohamedans is telling. Most that they charge with Islamophobia are in reality disdainful of the pedophile prophet and the religion that he invented or had revealed to him by an entity that called itself Gabriel.
Myself, I am less disdainful of the cult and more sickened by it, so I am an Islamonauseac.
A very confused man and not good for America. Really, what is the upside to this guy? I see none. He offers nothing which would make Ameirca a better country.
A very confused man and not good for America. Really, what is the upside to this guy? I see none. He offers nothing which would make America a better country.
somewhat off topic but related to politics/
I found a voter guide that readers might find interesting at
http://www.truthformuslims.com/guide/2008guide.pdf
"That they'll now read from the Quran at a national political convention — that shows we have come a long way in this country," he says.
Yeah, America has come long way - towards becoming an Islam-dominated nation. And the democrats are obviously leading the way.
If you're an Obama voter, you probably believe that "everyone deserves respect" or something like that...
Sure, why not? Everyone deserve respect, right? Gays deserve respect, paedophiles deserve respect, murderers deserve respect, terrorists deserve respect - if this is true then you're probably right that Islam deserves it.
Vote Obama - get lots of Muslim respect. Enjoy it whilse it lasts.
"That they'll now read from the Quran at a national political convention — that shows we have come a long way in this country," he says.
Yeah, America has come long way - towards becoming an Islam-dominated nation. And the democrats are obviously leading the way.
If you're an Obama voter, you probably believe that "everyone deserves respect" or something like that...
Sure, why not? Everyone deserve respect, right? Gays deserve respect, paedophiles deserve respect, murderers deserve respect, terrorists deserve respect - if this is true then you're probably right that Islam deserves it.
Vote Obama - get lots of Muslim respect. Enjoy it while it lasts.
I wonder if Mr. Yee has seen the pictures of the decapitated AMERICANS that his peaceful bretheren in Islam showed to the media?
Personally, I would shoot all the terrorists in GITMO before I turned out the lights and went home.