Chaplain detained

last updated 8 January 2015

Charleston, S.C.

A Muslim Army chaplain who ministered to suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center has been arrested on suspicion of aiding the enemy, military authorities said this week. Capt. James Yee, 35, has not been charged but is being held in the Charleston Navy brig pending an investigation. Yee, who once spent four years in Syria, was under surveillance when he returned to the U.S. from the Guantanamo Navy base on leave two weeks ago. A military official said Yee arrived carrying documents “a chaplain shouldn’t have,” including diagrams of the prison and a list of suspected terrorists and Taliban fighters being held there. Officials detained him, worried that he would give the material to terrorists. Then an Air Force enlisted man, Ahmad I. al-Halabi, who had translated for some of the 660 prisoners, was also arrested on espionage charges. It was unclear whether his case was linked to Yee’s.