Yee's speech kicked-off the Brown Muslim Students Association's Islam Awareness Month 2007. The theme is "the many faces of Islam."
Yee, a third-generation Chinese-American who converted to Islam in 1991 after graduating from the United States Military Academy, was selected as the Muslim chaplain at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. In September 2003, while headed home on leave, he was arrested and imprisoned for 76 days on espionage charges. But after a government investigation, all the criminal charges against him were dropped.
"It's clear that we're living in a very dangerous post-9/11 period, one in which the civil liberties of all Americans ... are threatened," Yee told The Herald before his speech. "My story pinpoints these dangers."
Noor Najeeb '09, president of the BMSA, introduced Yee, describing his life as "a story that is rarely voiced and even more rarely heard."
Yee described his journey from a Lutheran upbringing to his conversion to Islam. "For me, it was a reconfirmation of my monotheistic faith," he said. Yee left active service in the Army in the summer of 1993 to study Arabic and Islamic sciences in Damascus, Syria. He returned to active duty in January 2001 as an Army Muslim chaplain.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Yee was asked to hold briefings to educate U.S. soldiers about Islam. At Guantanamo, he said, his duties were to advise the prison's administrators and serve the religious needs of detainees and Muslim soldiers.
Yee said he had "unescorted access" to prisoner holding areas to carry out these duties. "I was one of the few individuals who could speak freely" to detainees, he said. And though he was assigned to the detention operation and not intelligence-gathering, Yee said he knew what was happening in the interrogation rooms.
"Guantanamo Bay's secret weapon," he said, is "the use of Islam against prisoners to break them." He said prisoners were forced to prostrate in the center of a circle inscribed with a pentagram by a guard who yelled, "Satan is your God now, not Allah." He said female interrogators "exploit(ed) conservative Islamic etiquette" by undressing before interrogating detainees and "giving lap dances" to unnerve them.
Yee said the Quran, believed by Muslims to be the literal word of God, was "desecrated in many different ways," such as being urinated upon and "tossed on the floor." These acts resulted in "hunger strikes" and "mass suicide attempts," he said. Yee said he tried to create more tolerance for detainees' faith by helping institute new policies that were more respectful towards the Quran.
After being officially recognized twice for outstanding performance, Yee was arrested in September 2003 in Jacksonville, Fla., by agents who said he was found in possession of suspicious documents. He was then transported to solitary confinement in a naval brig for 76 days. Though he was initially charged with espionage, that was eventually replaced by charges of mishandling classified information, downloading pornography from the Internet and adultery.
In 2004, all charges were eventually dropped. After resigning and receiving an honorable discharge in January 2005, Yee received a second Army commendation medal for "exceptionally meritorious service."
Yee described his case as "a gross miscarriage of justice." He said he was targeted for his Muslim faith, ethnicity and for advocating the "humane treatment of prisoners." He said it is the responsibility of students at Brown and other universities to "redirect our country" from such abuses of civil and Constitutional liberties.
A question and answer period followed Yee's speech. When Chelsea Rudman '08 asked Yee what he would say to President Bush if they were to meet, Yee said he would urge Bush to "take a sincere look at Islam." Lack of understanding of Islam and the abandonment of a commitment to human rights are the reasons the Iraq war and other operations have been "such a disaster," he said. "These are the things pushing people away from America."
Asked by another audience member what students could do to help shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison, Yee said the prison is "not going away anytime soon" as the government has invested so much money into building new facilities there.
Yee also joked that there were probably officials from the various government agencies that conduct interrogations at Guantanamo in the audience. "It's good that they're learning something," he said, laughing.
After taking questions, Yee showed a PowerPoint slideshow of photographs taken at Guantanamo Bay, including pictures of current and prior detainees and of the different camps at which detainees are held. He also demonstrated a "stress position" used during prisoner interrogations.
Students said the speech was thought-provoking.
"It kind of got to me," said Samuel Hitov '09. "Hearing this from a person who was actually there had more impact" than simply reading about Guantanamo Bay in the media, he said.
Gabriel Doss '10 said Yee's presentation was "very enlightening ... a different climate and a different subject matter than I'm used to exploring at Brown."
Najeb said she hoped "discussion and research" of the prison at Guantanamo Bay and related issues would continue after the lecture.
