You may remember Capt. James Yee, the Muslim Army chaplain at Gitmo. Yee was arrested, held in solitary confinement for 76 days, falsely accused of espionage and threatened with the death penalty for treason, before the case fell apart and it became clear that he was entirely innocent.
What's he doing now?
Thurston County[, Washington] is sending an unusually large number of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, including well-known former Army chaplain James Yee, who is pledged to Sen. Barack Obama. ...
Yee is a Muslim who was jailed amid suspicions he was acting as a spy at the U.S.-run detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003. An investigation cleared him of all charges, and he won an honorable discharge, although he said he's still trying to get back all of the materials taken from him during his arrest. ...
Yee was elected Saturday at the 9th District convention at North Thurston High School, one of nine congressional caucuses Democrats had throughout the state.
"I came out and basically reiterated that Sen. Obama is really the only candidate that consistently campaigns on rejecting torture without exception, on closing Guantanamo Bay, restoring habeas (corpus) and adhering to the Geneva Conventions," Yee said Monday.
He added that he sees himself as "living proof that civil liberties have been eroded since 9/11" because of what he calls "fear-mongering politics" led by conservatives.
I hope they feature Yee's compelling story at the convention and allow him to be the one to cast Washington's votes (assuming that's possible - I don't know how the rules work with regard to state delegations).
Update 5/22/08: Field negro says the Republicans will try to make a Rev. Wright-style scandal over Yee. I must still be naive, because I didn't even imagine they would be such scum as to try again to slime a man who was falsely arrested once.
That is very cool. Of course, I would bet good hard solid cash-type American dollars Michelle Malkin will have something about "Muslim terrorist is Obama delegate". Sigh.
Posted by: Tom Hilton | May 21, 2008 at 03:25 PM
Never bet on the decency of the GOP. Of course they'll try to slime Yee; I'm sure they'll use it to lend credence to the absurd "Obama is a secret Muslim" whispering campaign.
Posted by: Betty Cracker | May 22, 2008 at 11:08 AM
for a Muslim, Obama doesn't seem very fanatical. could be a ruse.
wouldn't it be great if you had to demonstrate a basic knowledge of ALL candidates on the ticket before you were allowed to vote?
at least there wouldn't be misplaced prejudice affecting votes.
Posted by: Tiny Tyrant | May 23, 2008 at 09:16 AM