A Chaplain's Test of Faith

"Without intending to, I had become the U.S. military's poster child of a good Muslim," he writes. "A devout chaplain who comfortably served both God and country."

He continued that role when he arrived at Guantanamo Bay in the fall of 2002. But because he shared the same religion as many of the detainees, he writes, he fell under the suspicion of an inexperienced group of intelligence officers who were responsible for camp security, starting a chain of events that led to his arrest.

All the national security charges were eventually dropped, and Yee was given a written reprimand for the adultery and pornography charges, which was later withdrawn. But his once-shining military career was in ruins, and his family was left with deep psychological wounds that Yee says he still is working to repair. Even talking about it to promote his book in the past few days has been painful.

"I learned this week that it has really affected me much more than I had previously realized," he says. "I've been waiting so long and I thought now I can just tell my story. But I've found it difficult."

The complexities of his character come through in his story, which is as much about the government's flawed case as it is about his own internal struggles between his faith and his profession.

An Unfriendly Atmosphere

On his arrival at Guantanamo, the outgoing Muslim chaplain left him with a warning: "This is not a friendly environment for Muslims, and I don't just mean for the prisoners."

Yee says he soon came to believe that Islam was used as a weapon against the detainees who practiced it. Guards, he writes, would frequently gather around the cell blocks and mock the prisoners during daily worship. Korans were often ripped and the bindings broken during cell searches.

As detainees confided in him, he heard more stories of insults to his religion taking place in the interrogation rooms. One detainee complained that some of the prisoners were forced to sit in the center of a Satanic circle drawn on the floor, outlined by lit candles. They were ordered to bow down as interrogators shouted, "Satan is your God, not Allah! Repeat after me!"

Yee said he initially found the complaints hard to believe. "But many detainees corroborated these stories, and translators" with the intelligence section "often confirmed them."

The book does not add greatly to previously reported charges made by released prisoners, FBI memos, and most recently by U.S. Southern Command, which confirmed at least five cases of soldiers desecrating the Koran and two cases of female interrogators using sexually explicit tactics.

The Army has thoroughly investigated allegations of abuses at Guantanamo, says Army spokesman Paul Boyce. "This is one person's representation of events," he says.

Yee began recording the complaints in a notepad he kept in his quarters and reported the complaints to his superiors, always in a "measured and professional way."