Steve Quayle News Alerts

September 21, 2003

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A Muslim chaplain at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo who counseled detainees suspected of terrorism and taught fellow troops about Islam is the first known U.S. soldier to be held in the U.S.-led war on terror.

Army Capt. Yousef Yee, 34, who converted to Islam after being raised a Christian, arrived at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba in November. His job was to teach fellow troops about Islam and counsel detainees suspected of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or to the al-Qaida terror network.

Military officials said yesterday that Yee - who was born James Yee but later took the Muslim name of Yousef - was detained Sept. 10 in Jacksonville, Fla., after returning from Guantanamo. He has not been charged.

A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said FBI agents confiscated classified documents Yee was carrying and questioned him before he was handed over to the military.

Bill Hurlburt, a spokesman with the FBI in Jacksonville, confirmed that agents were at the scene, but he declined to comment further.

In an interview conducted with the Associated Press in January, Yee declined to answer questions about the depth of his involvement with the more than 600 detainees, who come from 43 countries.

When asked whether he was sympathetic to the prisoners - some of whom have been held in Guantanamo for nearly two years without charges - Yee was silent and showed no emotion. When asked how his faith affected how he viewed the detention mission, he gave only a cursory answer.

He also offered Friday prayer services at the base.

Yee is being held at a military brig in Charleston, S.C. - the same place where officials are holding Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American-born Saudi who is alleged to have fought with the Taliban, and Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member charged with plotting to detonate a bomb.

"He had daily access to the detainees," said Capt. Tom Crosson, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, who confirmed that the military was holding Yee in South Carolina. "He is the first U.S. soldier that I know of to be detained and held since the war on terror began."

Crosson said he does not know the nature of the investigation: "If charges were formally filed, then we'd be able to tell you." He didn't know whether an Article 32 hearing, similar to a grand jury, is scheduled.

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