About 100 local Muslims and civil-rights activists gathered November 20 in the Islamic School of Seattle calling for the pre-trial release of Capt. James Yee, a former Fort Lewis Army Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling classified documents. Yee's arrest was reported in September and October. On Oct. 10, military authorities formally charged Yee with considerably less serious offenses: disobeying a general order by taking classified material home and transporting classified material without proper security containers.
To those who gathered at the Islamic School of Seattle, Yee's case bears striking parallels to that
of Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist wrongly accused of passing U.S.
nuclear secrets to China. As in the Lee case, said Cecilia Chang, president of San Francisco-based
Justice for New Americans, "there is no evidence that Yee ever gave anything to a foreign government."
Under military rules, government officials can hold Yee for 120 days before proceeding with
hearings. In October, the government asked for, and was granted, a 45-day extension, meaning
the military can hold Yee in pre-trial confinement until about March. (Source: Janet I. Tu, Seattle
Times; supplied by Guy M. Wong).