Muslim West Point graduate busted for espionage

Captain John Yee, a 1990 graduate of West Point and one of the U.S. Army's Muslim chaplains, has been arrested and is being held in the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., on charges of sedition, espionage, aiding the enemy, spying and failing to obey a general order.

The Washington Times' excellent Pentagon reporter, Rowan Scarborough, first broke this story, which was published on page one. The following day, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported it – but they back-paged it, even though they did credit the Washington Times.

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On Sunday, in its follow-up, the Washington Times reported:

Military officials yesterday confirmed that a Muslim chaplain who was counseling al-Qaida prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base has been detained since Sept. 10 after being found in possession of classified documents.

Capt. Yee served as "Muslim adviser to the commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo" since reporting there in November, said Capt. Thomas Crosson of the Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the mission at Guantanamo.

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Guantanamo, the lone U.S. presence in communist Cuba, serves as the holding site for 650 men from more than three dozen countries who are accused of being linked to the Muslim al-Qaida or Afghanistan's former Taliban regime.

He grew up in New Jersey as a Lutheran, but learned enough about Islam while attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., that he decided to convert. He later became one of the 17 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. armed forces.

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The military has prided itself on its promotion of Muslim chaplains, and now claims to have 17 on active duty. Capt. Yee has been among the many noted in revered tones by both reporters and the government.

That begs the question: Who at West Point is teaching Islam – and what specifically is being taught? Is it Wahhabism, which is so widely funded by Saudi Arabia? Will there be any investigation, since this is one of the first chaplains ever arrested for espionage?

The Washington Times further reports:

He became interested in Islam while a student and later spent four years studying Arabic and Islam in Damascus, Syria. He serves with the 29th Signal Battalion at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Capt. Yee, 35, a 1990 graduate of West Point, converted to Islam in 1991 and left the Army after completing airborne school at Fort Knox, Ky.

The suspect then went to Damascus to teach English and study Islam. After becoming a Muslim clergyman, he rejoined the Army as a chaplain.

Additional questions:

Why was Yee allowed to leave the Army after airborne training, rather than after completing his five years of obligatory service after receiving $250,000 worth of training at West Point?

And after spending time studying Islam in Damascus – the site of 12 Muslim terrorist headquarters – why on earth did the U.S. Army Chaplains Corps accept him back into the Army?

I telephoned the office of the Chief of Army Chaplains at the Pentagon, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Both of them bucked all questions to SouthCom in Tampa.

Here, a civilian PR person did not know if Chaplain Yee fulfilled his 5-year service obligation after graduating from the Point, and he did not know who in the chaplain's corps allowed Yee back into the Army, after years of studying Islam in Damascus, headquarters of so many Muslim terrorist organizations.

They surely should know, 12 days after this U.S. Army Muslim chaplain was arrested on charges of sedition, espionage, aiding the enemy, spying and failing to obey a general order.

This is another Army cover-up which Congress should not stand for.