Yee angered by belated report on his treatment

By Steve Powell | The Olympian • Published September 20, 2007

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After waiting three years for the report of a Defense Department inspector general, James J. Yee of Olympia was outraged Wednesday by a two-page executive summary sent out by the department.

It says the department did little wrong in its investigation and detainment of Yee, a former Muslim Army chaplain based at Fort Lewis who was arrested in 2003 for allegedly carrying classified information.

"In my view, what was reported was utterly ridiculous," said Yee, 39. "It's a huge cover-up. That's why independent investigations are necessary. "People conducting this investigation were not unbiased," he added.

The executive summary says the department acted properly in most of Yee's case: Counterintelligence suspected Yee of possessing classified information. The case was done in "good faith," Yee was "not targeted" because he was Muslim, and his treatment was "not abusive," according to the summary.

Yee said he doesn't know how anyone could conclude he was not abused. "I was strip-searched daily. I was subjected to sensory deprivation, blocking my eyesight and hearing. That borders on torture," he said.

At the time of his arrest Sept. 10, 2003, Yee was on a temporary assignment from Fort Lewis to provide religious support to suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As one of the Army's few Muslim chaplains, Yee saw the assignment as a way to bridge the cultural divide between guard and prisoner.

He left his wife and daughter behind in Olympia to take the assignment.

After his arrest, he was publicly branded a traitor and a spy by the military, and Yee said he was threatened with the death penalty. Yee is Chinese-American and a West Point graduate; he converted to Islam in 1991.

There were two areas in which proper procedures were not followed, the executive summary says. A general exceeded his authority in removing unfavorable information from Yee's file, and a lieutenant colonel violated department policy by writing a letter to the editor to The New York Times.

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