Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo

Excerpts and Extras: James Yee Interview

A lot of the material filmed for 'Outside The Law: Stories From Guantanamo' will not be included in the final film. To make this content widely accessible we will make much of it available in this Project Page and the Archive pages of the website, this will include full interviews, trailers and rough cuts.

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Introduction

James Yee was born in New Jersey and graduated from West Point military academy in 1990. Shortly afterward, he converted from Christianity to Islam in the 1990s and underwent religious training in Syria. After the September 11th attacks, Yee became a frequent government spokesman, helping to educate soldiers about Islam and build greater religious tolerance in the military. In November of 2002, he was selected to serve as Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay where at that time, nearly 700 detainees were being held by the government for suspected terrorist activities. Yee’s duties as chaplain gave him unrestricted access to the detainees and suspicion of him grew amongst his non-Muslim colleagues.

In September 2003, Yee was secretly arrested on his way to meet his wife and daughter for a two week leave. He was accused of spying and of being an operative in a ring that aimed to pass secrets to al-Qaeda from suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. Yee was locked away in a navy prison and spent 76 days in solitary confinement. The military leaked information about the case to the press and the media went on a feeding frenzy. Chaplain Yee was vilified on the airwaves and on the Internet as a traitor to his country and accused of being a mole inside of the Army. Then the military’s case began to unravel. First the charges against Yee were reduced and eventually they were dropped altogether.

Articles/ Videos/ Interviews in relation to James Yee:

James Yee Bio/ Interview with Juan Gonzalez

YOUTUBE- Speech by Chaplain James Lee

JAMES YEE: WIKI

James Yee Interview with Deborah Potter

James Yee article 'SUSPICION IN THE RANKS

'THE ORDEAL OF CHAPLAIN YEE'

YOUTUBE VIDEO - James Yee - In his own words

GUANTANAMO BAY- Detention Camp

Articles about James J Yee- The New York Times

Chaplain James Yee: Information

An American in chains: Times Online