csua.org/u/6im -> story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040320/us_nm/security_guantanamo_chaplain_dc_7
Miami-based United States Southern Command said the Army abandoned charges of mishandling classified information, as well as lesser charges of adultery and storing pornographic material on a government computer, stemming from Yees work at the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the prison facility at Guantanamo where the United States houses about 610 foreign terrorism suspects, dismissed the charges, citing national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence, Southern Command said in a statement. Chaplain Yee has won his case, Yees civilian lawyer, Eugene Fidell, told Reuters. In our view, hes entitled to an apology and well be looking forward to receiving one. General Miller and the government prosecutors and security officials determined that we would have had to release sensitive material if the case were to proceed on the charges of mishandling classified material. And because we wanted to adequately protect national security, we decided not to go forward, Costello said. Fidell said that we reject the notion that security concerns played any role in this decision, instead saying the governments case went up in smoke.
LEG IRONS AND HANDCUFFS But even as Yee spent 76 days in a Navy brig in South Carolina - much of it in leg irons and handcuffs - the Army never brought espionage-related charges against him. Yee, who also uses the first name Yousef, is a 1990 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Raised a Lutheran in New Jersey, the Chinese American converted to Islam while in the Army at about the same time he served in Saudi Arabia after the 1991 Gulf War news - web sites . Costello refused to say that the military believed Yee was an innocent man. The belief is that he had sensitive information that he did not have the authority to maintain and he did not safeguard it, he said. Although Miller considered Yees offer to undergo a debriefing in exchange for the government dropping the charges, granting him immunity and supporting his resignation, relevant law enforcement agencies could not support Yees request for immunity, the Southern Command statement said. Yees lawyers had offered to have Yee submit to 30 days of polygraph exams for questioning on spy-related issues. Southern Command said Yee will face nonjudicial proceedings on the allegations relating to adultery and storing pornography in a step that does not involve criminal charges. During a pretrial hearing in December, prosecutors produced witnesses including Lt. Karyn Wallace, who testified that she and the married chaplain had a sexual affair. But a military judge suspended the pretrial proceedings, and the military struggled with how to proceed in the case.
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