Tuesday, 11 May 2004

Connecting the dots. An insighftul commenter at Billmon's Whiskey Bar raised this question, and the more I think about it the more I wonder.

On September 10, 2003, Army chaplain Capt. James Yee was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida as he arrived back in the United States from Guantanamo. Federal agents said they found Yee carrying "sketches of the military prison."

On October 10, he was charged with two violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: Taking classified material to his home, and wrongfully transporting the material without proper security containers or covers.

On November 26, Yee was further charged with adultery with an unspecified woman at Guantanamo and with storing pornography on a government-issued computer in Cuba.

On March 20, 2004, the Army dropped all charges, citing "national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence." Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller — the man who is now in command at Abu Ghraib — made the decision to drop the charges.

On April 6, the Army handed Yee a gag order, preventing him from speaking publicly about the case.

Now, I don't have any basis to prove it — but here's a theory that fits the facts: Yee's "sketches" and "pornography", the evidence whose release created national security concerns, were images of Gitmo detainess being abused.

Perhaps the greatest collateral damage of all is that I can't dismiss that theory.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 7:43 pm. comments.