Look Who's Coming: James Yee

AT A GLANCE

Capt. James Yee was a West Point graduate and one of the first Muslim chaplains in the Army when he was assigned to Guantanamo Naval Base. It was a year after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and Yee explained the basics of Islam to thousands of new personnel, informally ministered to prisoners and helped ease tensions over treatment of the Koran at the military prison.

His reviews were stellar. On Sept. 8, 2003, supervisors wrote that his work was "truly exemplary in every measure." Two days later, he was arrested on suspicion of spying for al-Qaeda.

Yee spent more than two months in solitary confinement before he was released. Military prosecutors never found enough evidence for spying charges, and Yee eventually was cleared on lesser allegations, too. In 2005, he received an honorable discharge from the Army, but he knew that his professional reputation would always be shadowed by doubt.

Yee, who visits Durham on Thursday, spoke by phone recently to staff writer Ellen Sung.

Q - I'm curious about your impressions of Guantanamo, a place most of us will never see.

A - I had authorized unaccompanied access to these prison cell blocks, so I was in a very unique position to really interact with the prisoners on a very personal level and really get to know who these people are.

First and foremost, we have to understand they are human beings, and they should be treated as such. Every one of these people, all of whom are of the Muslim faith, are also fathers, brothers, sons. They have children.

Q - Were they all men?

A - They were all men, but they weren't all adults. There were individuals as young as 12 to 14 years old.

Q - What were your interactions with them like?

A - My interactions with them were very positive, and I was able to connect with them simply because of a shared religious faith. Many of them of course were very happy to see me whenever I was able to see them in cell blocks.

I was a source for them to forward complaints and concerns to higher levels of leadership. So I would actually listen to them, and I always say a good chaplain is a good listener.

Q - Was that a conflict for you? You want to comfort another human, but these people are accused of serious crimes.

A - You have to understand my role as the Muslim chaplain of Camp Delta. I was an adviser to the camp commander on this unique religious paradigm in which we find that every one of the prisoners were of the same faith. I was to advise the command on how the religion and the religious practices of the individuals affected the operation.

It was also dictated by the standard operating procedures that I was to make observations and recommendations regarding prisoner treatment, both individually and collectively. Again, the ultimate idea here is to make the operation run smoother.

I was actually praised for these changes by my command.

Q - Can you give me an example of a change you helped make?

A - In my book, I title one of my chapters "Gitmo's Secret Weapon." From my vantage point as a chaplain, [that] was religion ... which really is fundamentally against who we are as a nation that upholds freedom of religion and respects all religions.

One of the things that [upset detainees] was cross-gender invasive searches -- for example, allowing the female guards to physically search the men, something that we really don't allow even in our own prison system, except in extreme circumstances.

[Prisoners] were punished for refusing to allow the female guards to search their private areas, their groins and so on. For Muslims, this is against religious etiquette for males to do this, let alone females. So this was something I was actually able to get changed.