Four Democratic members of Congress are calling on the Pentagon to investigate the Army’s treatment of Capt. James Yee, a Muslim chaplain who had been falsely accused of espionage and imprisoned for 76 days before all charges were dropped.
Yee, 35, was investigated for alleged espionage at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, where the military is holding suspected terrorists.
The June 4 letter was signed by Reps. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Vic Snyder (D-Ark.). Skelton is the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, while Snyder and Smith serve on the panel.
The letter follows an April 23 request by Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts for a Pentagon investigation of the case to which there has been no response by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.
Rep. Honda believes an independent investigation is the only way to hold the Defense Department accountable for its actions.
“In this administration, who is going to inspect themselves?” Honda asked. “We’ll back up the Senate request, but I think our request with the inspector general makes a little more sense. An investigation will be the basis for an apology and reparations. We asked for an IG investigation on Rumsfeld’s policies on the PATRIOT Act and we got one. [The IG] came back with 26 points of concerns, and we wrote a letter to Rumsfeld asking him to respond to those points, and he as yet has failed to respond.
“If the right wing accuses me of using this as a campaign issue, I say they’re right. I want them to answer it,” Honda said.
The government’s additional reprimand against Yee for adultery and pornography also has been overturned.
Those developments “raise important questions about the strength and legitimacy of initial assertions by Army officials that Capt. Yee had engaged in espionage and treasonous conduct at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” said Smith and three other House members in a letter to the Pentagon’s inspector general.
Gov. Gary Locke also pushed for an investigation into the cases of other individuals accused of having connections to terrorism, like Yee, who after a lengthy imprisonment returned to Ft. Lewis, Wash.
“There’s a lawyer in Portland, Ore., who was accused of being connected with the Madrid, Spain train bombing. And yet the fingerprints don’t even match. And they had to issue an apology,” Locke said.
“Why is our government time after time ruining the reputations of people, charging them with being in concert with terrorists and then having to drop all of the charges and then releasing them? There are too many abuses that are occurring and we need to make sure that innocent Americans are not being dragged under like they have,” he said.
Joseph and Fong Yee, the parents of chaplain Yee, were heartened by the calls for an investigation.
“This will add a little more pressure so there will be an investigation. The military has left a cloud over our son’s head,” Joseph Yee said.
“I want Jimmy’s name cleared,” Fong Yee added, “Every bit of help is appreciated.”
The Associated Press also contributed to this story.