I just got back from hearing James Yee speak.

[no_hypocrisy]

He's the former U.S. Army Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay prison camp. He was given the Jose Padilla treatment for doing his job too well. Arrested in a government sting operation that was more of a kangaroo court, put in ankle/waist/wrist shackles, underwent sensory deprivation (light-blocking glasses & ear-mufflers), and thrown into an isolated cell in the same government prison where Habib and Padilla were being held for 76 days. Threatened with the death penalty. All charges mysteriously dropped. Government claimed he stole classified documents which A) He didn't steal and B) The documents weren't classified.

The Unitarian Minister who introduced Captain Yee has been to Guantanamo and saw the conditions and the prisoners first hand. He informed the audience that it is indeed a prison camp, not a detention center. And Guantanamo is the epicenter and symbol of the deterioration of civil rights and democracy. We are under a duty to expose the corruption, the cruelty, the lies, and close the damned place.

I cannot unfortunately report that during the question-and-answer period that any real solutions were offered. We concurred the media won't listen to us. Our legislators are listening to entities louder than and with more money than us.

Here's an article about Captain Yee's experience in The New York Review of Books.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18550

Capt. Yee has authored a book about his experience called For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Capt. Yee is a brother Sufi

and I have read his story with horror. Our nation is being run by monsters who ignore the rule of law and the morals of common human decency.

What is Capt. Yee doing now? Just promoting his book?

[TygrBright]

2. Uh-uh, don't ask that...

>>What is Capt. Yee doing now? Just promoting his book?<<

If he told you, Agent Mike would have to kill him.

Probably.

bitterly,
Bright

[no_hypocrisy]

3. The book is part of it. He's giving lectures in order to

both tell the public of his abuse and the danger for the rest of us. The monies from his lectures are being applied to his legal bill of approximately a quarter million dollars.

[MountainLaurel]

7. The WashPost

Did a great profile of Capt. Yee not long ago. What a brave man!

[hlthe2b]

4. Does Captain Yee now (and did he then)...

realize that he had supporters out here? I should think it would have been really easy to see the loud hateful antics of the RW and believe that he had little support...:shrug:

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Well, the lecture was standing room only tonight. That's a

good sign. He said that he has received much support from the Muslim community, the Chinese community, the Interfaith Community, etc. He didn't mention any particular politician who apologized on behalf of this country for what our tax dollar did to him . . . But specifically to your question, I don't think that it was as obvious to him as it is us here. The media has been silent. The politicians have been silent. There were no demonstrations in his name. No bombardment of letters to the editor. Etc. Etc. Etc. He has a lot of courage of knowing he was right in his convictions and believing others would eventually join him.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. There was a petition one could sign

in support of Capt. Yee. I don't know if he ever saw it.