Wuh-ho-ho ⦠Wait a second, w-a-i-t a second …
Remember James (aka Yousef) Yee, the Chinese-American convert to Islam who served as a Muslim chaplain for detainees at Guantanamo Bay?
Last time we heard about him he was at the center of an espionage scandal, in which he was accused of aiding, or passing messages for, or in some way assisting his co-religionists in military custody at Camp X-Ray.
Well, apparently not.
Now we hear that he has been charged with adultery and having pornographic material in his possession; the espionage accusations are apparently yesterdayâs news. And the Army is letting him go back to serving as a military chaplain at Fort Benning, with the only bar being that he canât have contact with any of the dudes at Guantanamo.
Now, Iâm not naïve enough to doubt that even the faithful can have cheating hearts or fall prey to the allure of saucy pictures. But does this add up exactly? I mean, is Yee an Islamic extremist or a philandering pornmeister? Which is it?
On the surface at least this sounds a lot like those first changes turned out to be bogus and that the military investigators were looking for some other charges to hit him with to prevent too humiliating a climb-down.
Itâs true of course that charges are sometimes never brought in espionage cases because sufficient evidence doesnât exist to sustain a conviction or the evidence canât be used — even in military trial — for fear of further compromising national security. But if the Army still had any serious suspicion that Yee was an al Qaida mole I find it pretty hard to believe that theyâd let him continue to serve as a chaplain anywhere.
I doubt we’ve heard the last of this story.
