“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”
Voltaire
“Chaplain Yee has won. The Army’s dismissal of the classified information charges against him represents a long overdue vindication.”
Eugene Fidell; attorney for James Yee
Guilty until proven innocent!
That’s the sorry state of the judicial system in America today.
The story of James Yee is just the most recent perversion justice under the Bush Administration.
Captain Yee, a proud West Point graduate, whose career has been distinguished by conscientiously applying himself to “playing by the rules” and a simple faith that the system rewards hard work, was arrested nearly a year ago and charged with espionage.
He was thought to have stolen classified documents from Guantanamo Bay prison facility and, therefore, could have had links with terrorist organizations.
The Military responded to this possibility by abducting Yee at the airport (when he returned to the US from Guantanamo) and throwing him in solitary confinement for 76 days. His terrified wife was never notified of his incarceration.
No proof of his guilt was offered.
Yee’s real crime is that he is a Muslim American; a group that has become the favorite “punching bag” of the present administration.
The rule of law has been affectively suspended for Muslims in this country, as the round-up and detention of 1100 innocent people after 9-11 indicated. Yee’s arrest is reflective of the racism and unbridled contempt for minorities that always lurks just below the surface of American life, but has been raised to the level of policy under the Bush Administration.
For the Bush Administration discrimination is the cornerstone of a just society.
The Yee story played out across the front pages of America’s top newspapers, celebrating the latest captive in the war on terrorism.
Just imagine what horrific influence it might have on national security if the world really knew what was going on in “Rummy’s Concentration Camp?”
Radio talk shows across the nation blasted Yee as the “threat in our midst”; a Benedict Arnold selling out his country to shadowy terrorist groups.
No one provided even a shred of evidence.
Not one op-ed columnist in the country spoke up for Yee; that dismal collection of collaborators invariably save their energies for inventing reasons to go to war against defenseless countries or for celebrating the benign affects of imperialism in the smoldering ruins of Baghdad.
Not one voice!
Is it possible to be more ashamed of your country?
Now, that the travesty of Yee’s arrest is being exposed (he has been released unceremoniously, and without an apology) we can see that the Military had no evidence from the very beginning. And, they knew it.
Those who read the details carefully at the onset knew that Yee was not carrying classified documents. The Army even admitted it publicly.
So, why was Yee led to the gallows and disgraced in front of the entire country without cause?
That’s a question we’ll have to inquire of the “dark hearts” that routinely author these flagrant violations of civil liberties in the name of fighting terror.
As for Captain Yee, his exoneration is hidden in the back pages of America’s newspapers; safely tucked away beyond the notice of the public.
There’s no need to draw attention to the innocent people who are savaged to provide the media with more grist for the mill.
MIKE WHITNEY can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com