[mburbank]

Captain James Yee, a military muslim chaplain serving in Guantanamo bay has been arrested and is being held without charges. Since this is a military arest of an active officer, they can hold him for 120 days without charges.

He was caught with diagrams of the holding cells and the names and number of the prisoners being held, things which the US has to date refused to reveal.

He is also accused of having unspecified ties with terrorists. He spent four years living in Damascus and is mrried to syrian islamic woman, so that pretty much means he's a terrorist. Think for a moment, though. Don't you think the army would have put this guy through the security clearance ringer before assigning him to Gauntanamo friggin' bay?

I say 'watch this story' because I think it highly likely that at the end of the 120 days, captain Yee will officially disapear. Any trial of him would need to be kept secret as the trial itself would need to introduce as evidence the very things the Government intends to keep secret. I think it most likely that Captain Yee will be declared an enemy combatant, and as happened with the 'dirty bomber' Jose Padilla, the embarassing fact that the governments case has little in the way of evidence that would stand up in court need never come to light. He will remain in a millitary brigg without access to lawyer and may never be heard from again.

Perhaps this guy IS a terrorist spy. But I think it's equally likely he's a whistle blower and intended to talk to reporters about conditions at camp x-ray and the nature of the prisoners, some of whom the government has admitted are children and some of who may have had nothing whatever to do with Al Quaeda and were captured believeing they were fighting the Northern Alliance. Now I understand that he's in the army, and if he intended tyo blow the whistle, he was breaking military law and should face court marshall. But I doubt that will ever happen. I think this guy is going to vanish for a long time.