The Niqabi Paralegal

As the government's case again Captain James Yee continues to fall apart, his hearing was delayed a fourth time on Tuesday. Yee, a Chinese-American convert to Islam who served as a military chaplain at Guantanamo, was initially alleged to be part of a spy ring but when the government finally brought charges, he was only accused of mishandling classified documents.

Yee's case has become a cause celebre among both Muslim-American and Chinese-American activists, who say that Yee is a victim of racial and religious profiling. Yee's father, Joseph Yee, renewed this allegation in a news conference on Feburary 2, 2004.

Yee was held in solitary confinement for 76 days, often in manacles. He was finally released in time for Eid al-Fitr, but the government muddied the waters by charging him with adultery and storing pornography on his computer. The case has seen many strange developments since then, including the prosecutors themselves mishandling classified documents.

Would Yee have been treated like this if he weren't Muslim? If he weren't Chinese-American? The case is all too reminiscent of the Wen Ho Lee saga - another Chinese-American accused of espionage only to be exonerated in the end. The similarities are not lost on the Chinese-American community.

© 2004 Solidarity USA