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May 22, 2006 

James Yee, a Muslim chaplain formerly stationed at the Guantanamo detention camp, spoke at the University of California, Davis on May 5. The UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas (CSHRA) hosted a forum about the treatment of prisoners at Guant�namo Bay.

Yee, who earlier said that journalists and congressmen who visit Guantanamo prison don't get a real unsanitized picture of conditions there, told about his personal experience, what prisoners and interpreters told him during his time as Guantanamo chaplain, and what happened afterward.

Yee said, "I can go on with things that happened in Guantanamo, like the ages of some of the prisoners down there, as young as 12 to 14 years old. Prisoners as young as 12 to 14 years old were being held down in Guantanamo when I was there."

Mr Yee says that a celldoor was mistakenly left unlocked by some guards, and a prisoner left his cell and attempted to lock the three guards in that cell while they were conducting a search. The guards easily overpowered that prisoner. "But the incident didn't stop there," said Yee. "One of the guards continued to bludgeon that prisoner on the back of the head after already being shackled at the ankles and his wrists behind his back and, of course, it was a bloody affair. There was blood all over."

James Yee was accused of espionage by the military on September 10, 2003. He was locked away in solitary confinement and abused in a manner similar to that of the other detainees at Guantanamo.

About the treatment he received when he was himself imprisoned, Yee said, "I was arrested in secret, held incommunicado. I never showed up at the airport in Seattle like I was supposed to have, where my wife and daughter were waiting. They didn't know what happened to me. My parents in New Jersey had no idea what had happened. I essentially disappeared from society, from the face of the earth."

Yee continues, "And down on the way, on this trip to Charleston, the guard pulls out of this bag these goggles -- they're blackened out, opaque -- puts them on my eyes so now I can't see a thing. He takes out these heavy industrial type ear muffs, the likes that you might see a construction worker wearing when he's jack hammering in the middle of the street, puts them on my ears, and now I can't hear a thing. We call this tactic 'sensory deprivation.' Sensory deprivation, it's something that I recently read that the American Psychiatric Association has included in a draft of their definition of torture."

On another aspect of the treatment he experienced, Yee said, "One of the most ironic parts of this situation is that down in Guantanamo, as the Muslim chaplain, I was able to protect certain religious rights for the alleged, suspected, Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners down in Guantanamo. The point is, I was denied my religious rights as a U.S. citizen in military custody, the very same rights that I was able to uphold for prisoners down in Guantanamo."

After 76 days, James Yee was released and the criminal charges against him were eventually dropped. He is now speaking out about his own experience and the incidents he witnessed at Guantanamo.

The decision to jail Yee was made by the commander of the Guantanamo detention camp, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller. He was then transferred to Iraq, where he was involved in the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib.

In May 2004, when Yee's case attracted the attention of the media, Gen. James Hill, chief of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversaw military operations at Guantanamo, called Yee's incarceration necessary, "given the circumstances at the time." And Col. William Costello, a Southern Command spokesman, also said in May 2004, "There's really nothing more that we're going to share on the case. We've dropped the charges. ... I'm not at liberty to talk about what the investigation entailed."

US have denied abuse on Guantanamo detention camp. On 1:st of June 2005 Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a newsbrief said, " But little has been said about the great lengths that the military go to at Guantanamo Bay to accommodate the religious practices of detainees in their care. There are specific instructions as to how those involved in the custody of detainees should handle themselves with respect to religious matters. Special meals are provided to meet cultural dietary requirements. Schedules are respectful of prayer. Indications of the direction to pray are provided."

External links

The UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas (CSHRA)

Sources

• "News Transcript". United States Department of Defense, June 1, 2005

• Laura Parker "The ordeal of Chaplain Yee". USA TODAY, May 16, 2004

• JOHN STARK "Ex-Gitmo chaplain tells of abuse". The Bellingham Herald, April 19, 2006

• Susan Knapp "Former Muslim Chaplain at Guatanamo to Speak at Dartmouth". Dartmouth News, May 16, 2006

• "Ex-Guantanamo Chaplain James Yee on Faith and Patriotism Under". Democracy Now!, May 22, 2006

• Frank E. Lockwood "Held in Guantanamo 76 days, U.S. Muslim 'relied on faith'". HERALD-LEADER RELIGION WRITER, May 19, 2006