Chinese-Am turned Muslim arrested for treason?

[MellowDrama]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3126112.stm

[amietron]

he's not cute.

[kimpossible]

who's the genius to station him with al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects? the guy might have requested a transfer and duty there but at least one person above him had to authorize it. this whole thing sounds weird.

[Faithless]

The chaplain was arrested on his arrival at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida after customs officials became suspicious of documents found in his baggage and called in military authorities, law enforcement officials said.

Reports say these documents included maps detailing the location of various prisoners within the Camp Delta detention centre in Guantanamo Bay and the names of their interrogators.

So, the question probably is -- what is he doing with these documents, I guess.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally Posted by Hello_Hapa

who's the genius to station him with al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects? the guy might have requested a transfer and duty there but at least one person above him had to authorize it. this whole thing sounds weird.

Well, the entire US government, especially military, police, and intel, is pathetically short on Arabic speakers. They can't even find people to do recordings for them. One time before the invasion of Iraq, they hacked into the Iraqi government phone system, and were planning to use it to spread propaganda and general havoc, but the best they could do was to find was some Defense Language Institute trainee speaking broken-ass heavily-American-accented Arabic to record a message saying "Surrender, you are surrounded" and set it to play every time someone picked up a phone.

If they needed someone to deal with prisoners, they'd take who they can get. Why? The average guy never even dreams about studying Arabic as a second language, so the only people who speak it are Arab immigrants (most of whom aren't that interested in joining up, except some of the Christians and others who got persecuted back at home) and the occasional convert who actually took his imam's haranguing to heart and started studying the holy language of the Quran, or rather, one of the present-day corruptations of it which claims to be holier than other non-Arabic languages.

[kimpossible]

Originally Posted by AliBabaIncorporated

Well, the entire US government, especially military, police, and intel, is pathetically short on Arabic speakers.

Excellent point.

[MellowDrama]

Originally Posted by AliBabaIncorporated

Well, the entire US government, especially military, police, and intel, is pathetically short on Arabic speakers. They can't even find people to do recordings for them. One time before the invasion of Iraq, they hacked into the Iraqi government phone system, and were planning to use it to spread propaganda and general havoc, but the best they could do was to find was some Defense Language Institute trainee speaking broken-ass heavily-American-accented Arabic to record a message saying "Surrender, you are surrounded" and set it to play every time someone picked up a phone.

If they needed someone to deal with prisoners, they'd take who they can get. Why? The average guy never even dreams about studying Arabic as a second language, so the only people who speak it are Arab immigrants (most of whom aren't that interested in joining up, except some of the Christians and others who got persecuted back at home) and the occasional convert who actually took his imam's haranguing to heart and started studying the holy language of the Quran, or rather, one of the present-day corruptations of it which claims to be holier than other non-Arabic languages.

I heard a girl from my school, who was a Mideast Studies major, fluent in Farsi and Arabic (she's ethnically Iranian/Persian, btw) is in super high demand right now. I think if ANYTHING can come good out of this war is that some Americans will at least try to learn Arabic and learn something about the Mideast. They know a shitload more about us than we do them.

[ism]

Chaplain James Yee returns to his family in Olympia, WA this evening. Accused of esponiage, military prosecutors could not make a case and downgraded the charges to "mishandling documents." Rather than save face, prosecutors decided to tack on charges of adultery, rarely pursued. A hearing on whether or not he will face a court martial will occur next month in Georgia.

[nonamerasian]

I think there was also a charge on downloading Internet porn or something or another.

[Blue dice]

Originally Posted by nonamerasian

I think there was also a charge on downloading Internet porn or something or another.

Which is ridiculous when you consider the sheer number of enlisted men who download porn and visit bars for "juicy girls."

They are really just grasping at anything to ruin him.

[younggiftedandblack]

Originally Posted by Blue dice

Which is ridiculous when you consider the sheer number of enlisted men who download porn and visit bars for "juicy girls."

They are really just grasping at anything to ruin him.

You can't download porn on an Gov't computer. That's a federal crime.

The adultery one is BS however.

[Blue dice]

Originally Posted by younggiftedandblack

You can't download porn on an Gov't computer. That's a federal crime.

There are lots of rules that are considered "no go" in the military but enlisted men break them all the time. Officers can give leeway depending on the offense. I really doubt they would have dropped the hammer in such a fashion on a normal enlisted man caught downloading porno.

[bluemonq]

and though mishandling documents/leaving unsecured laptops lying around/not keeping secrets...secret aren't good things, they occur all the time; stupid to just prosecute this one. [Moving off to a tangent] IMO, I think everyone who's done that should be prosecuted - though that probably wouldn't leave that many people, would it? =p Come on, people: how hard is it to log off computers/shred documents?