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James "Yusuf" Yee, a Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military, was the focus of a Keystone Kops investigation a few years ago, when he was accused of carrying classified documents out of Guantanamo, and then prosecutors weren't sure they were classified, and finally they dropped the whole thing. Yee then began touring around complaining of his persecution by government authorities, and playing up a sense of Muslim victimhood.
But in this interview on Syrian TV, he outdoes himself, passing on stories from Gitmo detainees -- that is, people who learned and internalized Muhammad's dictum "war is deceit" -- of atrocities that he did not personally witness.
"Former Muslim Chaplain of Guantanamo Prison, James Yee, Tells of the Desecration of the Koran during Interrogation," from MEMRITV (thanks to all who sent this in):
Following are excerpts from an interview with former Guantanamo army chaplain James Yee, which aired on Syrian TV on October 19, 2007.Interviewer: How was religion being used against those prisoners [in Guantanamo Bay]?
Yee: Great question. One, we've all heard how the Koran has been desecrated down in Guantanamo and as Koran, the holy Koran - the words which Muslims all over the world consider the literal words of God – was being desecrated in Guantanamo in many different ways.
Interviewer: It was thrown into toilets and whatever, that's what we read.
Yee: The initial report that was printed by Newsweek indicated that perhaps the Koran was thrown into a toilet by an interrogator. It was unfortunate, that Newsweek had to retract that story, but I talked firsthand with prisoners who were held in Camp X-Ray, which was the first prison camp of Guantanamo, very early on in 2002, and prisoners told me directly that the Korans that they had brought with them were tossed into buckets - buckets which were used as toilets in that makeshift camp. I myself…
Interviewer: So… Buckets basically of urine and feces, is that correct?
Yee: Right, right, exactly. This was before I got there and this was in Camp X-Ray, where, again, it was a quick makeshift prison, set up for the first prisoners who arrived there. When I got there, Camp Delta, which was a little more sturdy and each cell had its own toilet, was already built by the time I got to Guantanamo in late 2002. 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. It became such an issue that prisoners carried out massive protests. Some of them even attempted suicide in response to how awful the Koran was being abused. So this is something that was occurring, was addressed officially...
Interviewer: And did it stop?
Yee: ...by myself and many others down in Guantanamo. It did come to a stop at a certain point. And one of the reasons is when one of the prisoners attempted suicide, the intelligence officers got a little bit smart, because they realized at that point that if a prisoner ended up killing himself, then they could no longer interrogate that prisoner. So they said we don't want prisoners killing themselves…
Interviewer: Because we can't put them to use anymore.
Yee: Exactly, but it was them who were driving them towards these suicide attempts by desecrating the Koran.
[...]
Yee: I learned from the prisoners that female interrogators were a big part of the intelligence gathering operation, and I recall even the commander of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Major General Jeffery Miller, often saying in media interviews that female interrogators were very creative in their approach to gathering intelligence and conducting interrogations.
Interviewer: What did he mean by "creative?"
Yee: What was actually going on in these interrogation rooms with these female interrogators was that they were very ready to conduct their interrogation by stripping off their clothes, being nude in front of Muslim prisoners, thinking that Muslims who come from a conservative Muslim society might break or be shattered by this type of behavior. But they went farther than that, and they would inappropriately rub their bodies against these prisoners. It has even been reported, and suggested in FBI memos that have been subsequently released, that female interrogators even went so far as grabbing the genitals of Muslim male prisoners in the course of interrogating them. For me, as a Muslim, and for many of the other Muslim Americans who were down there, when we learned of this, we thought this was not only degrading towards the prisoner, we thought this was degrading towards…
Read it all and find out to whom it was degrading, via Yee the moralist, who has never to my knowledge spoken out against polygamy, wife-beating, female genital mutilation, and the rest. Which is not to suggest that these lurid stories are true. Yee also goes on to accuse his fellow American soldiers of racism and "Islamophobia."
Posted by Robert at November 20, 2007 4:36 PM
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This is yet another example of why we need to change our laws to allow Muslims to be kept our of national security positions so that we have half a chance of winning the war in defense of the world-wide Muslim jihad.
Posted by: Karl2![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 20, 2007 4:56 PM
This is yet another example of why we need to change our laws to allow Muslims to be kept out of national security positions so that we have half a chance of winning the war in defense of the world-wide Muslim jihad.
Posted by: Karl2 at November 20, 2007 4:57 PM
O the poor wuslims!
Somebody call a wambulance!
at November 20, 2007 5:12 PM
Is it possible to be a Mohammedan and not be sanctimonious?
Anybody?
Posted by: Ynkedoodl2 at November 20, 2007 5:19 PM
Is that a trick question?
(/sarc)
lol
at November 20, 2007 5:29 PM
This chaplin (intentional misspelling) is quite a hoot. Who in their right mind would believe a woman would strip naked in front of one of those goons and rub up against him in order to "break" him? The only one being "creative" is Yee with this ridiculous story.
I see he's also whipping up the old Koran in the toilet BS too. At least that's plausible sounding even if it was proven baloney.
Of course exiling these losers on a far away island without chaplains and those "wild slutty interrogators" would put an end to such insane myths.
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at November 20, 2007 5:29 PM
Is this man a citizen of the United States? If he's not, is it possible to just revoke his passport and let him live without the benefits of the country he has so willingly betrayed to be a star based solely on heresay?
at November 20, 2007 5:29 PM
Check out the video too. The interviewer looks more rock chick than muslima
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1610.htm
Are they going to let this back into America?
Posted by: zaltys at November 20, 2007 5:30 PM
Ynkedoodl2 - The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the answer to your question is no.
Posted by: MP at November 20, 2007 5:32 PM
I think if his "heresay", which that fraud koran "incident" was, is what got a few of our soldiers murdered, he should be held accountable as an accessory to murder.
Then again, not gonna happen with the PC pahblum lawyers & MSM running interference for such pond scum...before, he would've been arrested already.
at November 20, 2007 5:33 PM
Hard to believe that this piece of dung was a commissioned officer.
Posted by: MP at November 20, 2007 5:34 PM
I have a cousin who has a friend whose former brother in law's uncle will confirm that this chaplain actually tossed the Quran in the bucket.
Posted by: Pelayo at November 20, 2007 5:45 PM
And so on it goes with the lie called islam. If this bas#*@d of a human ever returns to the United States he should be put in shackles and taken to Guantanamo. Damn I wonder if America will ever wake from this stupor were in.
Posted by: AMartinez at November 20, 2007 5:49 PM
Somehow, even if these stories were true, which they're not, they wouldn't arouse much sympathy.
Having a woman disrobe in front of you, or mistreating a book, or being offered soup with trace amounts of pork byproducts, is hardly in the same league as what happened to Nicholas Berg, or Daniel Perl, or the Coalition soldiers burned and strung up on the bridge in Iraq. But Yee shows us, on Syrian TV, whose welfare he is really concerned about.
At least the army didn't keep him on as chaplain. We have to be thankful for something.
Posted by: special_guest at November 20, 2007 5:50 PM
Is this an active duty officer? If not is there something that can be done as a former Army officer? Something like aiding the enemy. Even if it were true! Which I don't for a second believe, but that is not the point if I don't or mister average muslim/terrorist does. It just feed the fire and in public opinion does us no good.
Posted by: Im.mad.as.HELL! at November 20, 2007 5:55 PM
Only in Islam.
these female interrogators was that they were very ready to conduct their interrogation by stripping off their clothes,..... and even went so far as grabbing the genitals of Muslim male prisoners in the course of interrogating them.
Seriously though, I am sure those Moslems started singing like canaries the instant the tops came off, and to think of the horror those poor hapless souls must have felt, I am sure it makes water-boarding look like a trip to Disneyland.
Mighty warriors of Allah, destroyed by throwing the Qur’an on the floor and American mammaries!
Now here’s the real kicker.
these women were presenting themselves as simply sex objects and this is not how we should view women in any society.
at November 20, 2007 6:03 PM
Even more outrageous than Yee's erotic dreams is that the woman reporter seems to believe them; even helps to embelish them.
Posted by: PRCS at November 20, 2007 6:14 PM
The real issue here is the prevalence of Westophobia among Muslims (as Barry Rubin would call it). They hate and fear Western culture, and then they project those feelings onto Westerners, whom they accuse of being Islamophic.
Until we take the next step and characterize the war as one against Islam, the Yees among us will be thorns in our sides.
at November 20, 2007 6:34 PM
James J. Yee also known by the Arabic name Yosuf Yee is an American and former US Army Chaplain who obtained the rank of captain. born in New Jersey, Yee is a graduate of West Point in 1990. After he graduated in 1990 he converted to Islam and underwent religious training in Syria and then married a palestinian woman, with whom he now has two children. Yee was awarded two distinguished service medals for his work at guantanamo.
He was arrested on Sept.10th 2003 when a U.S. Customs agent found a list of Guantanamo detainees and interrogators among his belongings. He was charged with five offenses: sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage, and failure to obey a general order. These charges were later reduced to mishandling classified information in addition to some minor charges. All court-martial charges against Yee were dropped on March 19,2004,by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller "citing national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence, and he was released to resume his duties.
He retired from the US military with an honorable discharge in January 05, but he is also seeking an apology.
In October 2005 Yee published his book, For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire. In it Yee writes that he was kept in solitary confinement for seventy-six days, and that he was forced to undergo sensory deprivation. He also wrote that General Geoffrey Miller routinely incited the guards to hate the detainees. He alleges serious mistreatment of prisoners. Yee argued that most of the detainees had little or no intelligence value.
Posted by: Mackie at November 20, 2007 6:35 PM
It still amazes me that this guy was a graduate of West Point and a Captain in the United States Army. Besides having almost a total focus on the treatment of the Quran.
I think he should go to Saudia Arabia and tell his sob story to the Saudis and during and interview there, make the statement there that the Saudis would never desecrate the Bible if it was there.
By the way, how might the Bible be treated in Syria? oh and watch out for those naked American female interrogators.
at November 20, 2007 6:50 PM
Things I would like to see deparment:
1. Those brave christianity bashing "artists" bash Islam.
2. The Koran prohibited in America because it is hate literature (which it is).
3. A big tornado whisk Hollywood off to Saudi Arabia and dump that cesspool there.
4. Shawn Penn and Osama Binladen wrapped in bacon together and shot into outer space.
5. Saudi Arabia declared a terrorist state.
at November 20, 2007 7:07 PM
My question is, what about the desecration of 2000 human lives, far more valuable than a crappy book, who were slaughtered on 911; how about the thousands of US soldiers who have been desecrated. How about the desecration of Nick Berg's head from his body? Why isn't the whining muslim dude complaining about that?
Posted by: angryeagle at November 20, 2007 7:30 PM
"Some of them even attempted suicide in response to how awful the Koran was being abused."
My, my, such fragile self-images. If they can decompensate that easily I would bet every bucket that their self-esteem is equivilent to the contents of the buckets. Such a glorious nobility of strength and character have Mo's flunkies been bestowed with!
Pathetic...
Posted by: ElizaDoolittle at November 20, 2007 7:39 PM
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.
an the Saudi religious police think knothing off troughing bibles in the garbage if muslims are not going to respect other faiths books why should we respect the quran
Posted by: mowasaperv at November 20, 2007 8:24 PM
Yee is hardly a moralist. Like most Muslim males he has a addiction to porn. When he was busted they found on his official laptop a lot of porn videos on it.
And what was the Army thinking allowing him to go to Syria for his "religious training"? that should have been a red light that that this guy already went bad.
Posted by: waltc at November 20, 2007 8:37 PM
As insane as the thought of a woman getting naked and touching a creature like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in any manner is Yee's BS will be lapped up by millions of Islamaniacs and many of their Western fellow travelers as the truth. He should go back to Gitmo-this time, in chains.
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at November 20, 2007 8:41 PM
"Some of them even attempted suicide in response to how awful the Koran was being abused"
Now that is some serious bu******.
Posted by: Haidon at November 20, 2007 9:31 PM
US govt. should BAN Hajj pilgrimage. Anyone who undertakes, supports or provides any service (travel agent, hotel etc) should be stripped of US citizenship. Hajj is RELIGIOUS APERTHEID.
Boycott Hajjis! Boycott goods from Muslim countries!
Confront Muslims about the ill-treatment of Christians in Muslim countries!
Posted by: Proud Woman at November 20, 2007 9:36 PM
Per Muhammad, war is deception. So this Yee character, who's character is more than suspect is making these claims about Qur'an desecration based solely on the testament of the detained Islamists themselves?
Surreal comes to mind. That, and treason as well, I mean the Islamic detainess have no reason to lie, right?
If desecrating the Qur'an was an effective tactic to force suicide amongst the Islamic jihadists, then it should simply be made policy.
Posted by: awake at November 20, 2007 9:45 PM
"Some of them even attempted suicide in response to how awful the Koran was being abused."
"What was actually going on in these interrogation rooms with these female interrogators was that they were very ready to conduct their interrogation by stripping off their clothes, being nude in front of Muslim prisoners, thinking that Muslims who come from a conservative Muslim society might break or be shattered by this type of behavior."
Wow. Who knew that nder those suicide belts beat sensitive jihadi hearts. I bet these in-touch-with-their-feminine-side terrorists even cried when Old Yeller died. If I'm understanding Yee correctly, an uprising of naked Western females desecrating Korans would cause massive jihadi casualties???
Taking off clothes now ...
Posted by: CJ at November 20, 2007 10:41 PM
Another Coran in the crapper story--yawn.
I think many more 72 virgin anticipated muslim males would be aroused rather than horrified at the thought of naked woman interrogators. The 9/11 hijackers went to the flesh pits of Vegas as a prelim to their "holy" act.
( Its where the counterfit thing belongs anyway)
Posted by: guide inside at November 20, 2007 11:41 PM
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928431/posts
NUKES of PAK IN USA CONTROL. IS THIS TRUE
Posted by: Rajesh_singh at November 21, 2007 12:39 AM
unhappily Yee was a West Point graduate
and what is wrong with the government, so inept that it cannot make a case against him?
Posted by: ploome at November 21, 2007 12:49 AM
Yee was awarded two distinguished service medals for his work at guantanamo.
--from Wikipedia, linked above
The Distinguished Service Medal is not a big boy medal. The Distinguished Service Medal is a grown-up medal. Wikipedia’s references do not support Lee being awarded the DSM but they do state that he was charged with adultery and pornography. If he actually was awarded one, let alone two DSMs, time to get some more ammunition at Wal-Mart.
Maybe Yee watched too many funny movies from the library. Yee wears the Distinguished Service Medal like he sports a Ron Jeremy.
http://www.americal.org/awards/achv-svc.htm
Posted by: pez at November 21, 2007 1:27 AM
If there's one place that's always been a bastion of patriotism and loyality in our country, it's been the U.S. military. But because of the willful blindness, and political opportunism of todays political leadership, the military isn't allowed to consider the possible threat a Muslim might pose in a position of leadership and trust.
This Chaplain was commissioned as an American officer, a position that was always assumed to be beyond reproach when it came to loyality to the principles of duty, honor and country.
This man was never loyal to those principles -- not on the day he was commissioned, not today. His loyalities were always to Islam.
How many more people like him are being placed in positions of trust in our military and government because no one is allowed to question the belief system they were born and raised in?
Posted by: rational
at November 21, 2007 1:57 AM
Reuters:
In his [Yee’s] book, which became a bestseller in Indonesia but had limited success in the United States, Yee portrays an environment in which guards were encouraged to abuse prisoners by the prison commander, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller.
Miller went to Iraq in 2003 to step up intelligence gathering from prisoners there. He refused to testify in the courts martial in January last year of two dog handlers charged with prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, invoking his constitutional right to avoid self incrimination. He retired six months later and received a Distinguished Service Medal for meritorious service in a ceremony at the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes.
Miller got the DSM.
Yee went into business:
Since leaving the Army, Yee has written a book about his ordeal, "For God and Country, Faith and Patriotism Under Fire," and given lectures at universities and Muslim community centers around the country.
http://www.reuters.com/article/sphereNews/idUSN0644620520070207?sp=true&view=sphere
Posted by: pez at November 21, 2007 2:33 AM
"they were very ready to conduct their interrogation by stripping off their clothes"
Applications for detention in Guantanamo have quadrupled after the interview.
Posted by: FreeSpeech at November 21, 2007 5:03 AM
Just for the record, and speaking as another West Point grad, I am horrified and humiliated that this guy is a West Pointer. I can only hope that he is totally disowned by his classmates and other alumni. We need to bring back the old punishment of "the Silence".
To my fellow Americans, who paid for my and every West Point graduate's education, I can only say that I am sorry this guy turned out this way but that Academy graduates are nearly to a man (or woman!) steadfast, loyal, patriotic, and appreciative of what we have been given.
Thanks, America, we will continue to serve faithfully - James Yee notwithstanding.
Posted by: COpatriot at November 21, 2007 1:53 PM
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