WHAT ABOUT ME?:

Army Chaplain's Arrest Puts Chinese Americans on Edge: : The unanswered questions and media frenzy around the arrest of Capt. James Yee remind Chinese Americans of the charges -- almost all of which were later dropped -- against Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, which they say ruined an innocent man's career. (Andrew Lam, Sep 26, 2003 , Pacific News Service)

Many Chinese Americans are feeling dread in the wake of the arrest of Capt. James Yee, a Muslim chaplain stationed at Fort Lewis Army Base, Wash. The case brings back memories of the prosecution -- some would say persecution -- of Dr. Wen Ho Lee.

Lee, the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, was arrested by the FBI in 1999 on espionage charges and found not guilty after months in solitary confinement. President Clinton later apologized to him, though Dr. Lee's career as a scientist was already ruined.

Yee's arrest is as troubling as Dr. Lee's, says Ling Chi Wang, a professor of East Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Though not prepared to pass judgment on the case, Wang says that "based on what has been leaked to the media, I smell a rat." The public knows next to nothing about the Yee case other than what the FBI and the military have revealed to the press, he says, much of which "we can safely regard as propaganda and half-truths." [...]

The effect of the arrests of Dr. Lee and other Chinese scientists due to racial profiling, Chan adds, "is that now, few Asians want to join government institutions. How many Chinese will want to go to West Point if they see what's happening to Capt. Yee?"

Phil Ting, director of Asian Law Caucus, is also watching the case with concern. "The New York Times article about Yee insinuates certain amount of guilt already," he says. Ting adds that in some ways, Captain Yee's situation is worse than Dr. Lee's because after 9/11, government power over civilian and military personnel increased. "If it's a closed military tribunal, I wonder if Yee will be getting due process."

Asian Americans are more vulnerable after 9/11, says Zia. "At times of heightened government scrutiny, the clergy are among the first to be rounded up. Faith communities should be especially concerned. Unfortunately for Chaplain Yee, he's facing a double whammy, being Chinese and Muslim." But everyone has a right to a fair and open trial, she says, "to be treated as innocent until proven guilty."

Whether Wen Ho Lee was an actual spy or not, butv what is indisputable is that he engaged in criminal activity and endangered national security. He admits as much. Maybe these folks could find another "martyr".

Meanwhile, that they are mainly worried about themselves in the face of revelations of a potentially disastrous security problem at Guantanamo hardly speaks well of their patriotism.

Potomac Watch: Case shows U.S. vulnerability in Arabic shortage (STEWART M. POWELL, 9/27/03, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER)

The spying charge against an Air Force translator at the terrorist detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, underscores the U.S. government's shortage of Arabic language specialists at a time when the war on terrorism demands their skills.

To offset the shortage of U.S.-trained Arabic translators, U.S. intelligence officials were relying on Syria-born airman Ahmad al-Halabi to carry out sensitive assignments involving the terrorism suspects.

Al-Halabi, 24, who emigrated from Syria to Dearborn, Mich., in 1996 and joined the Air Force after high school graduation in 1999, faces 32 military charges, including some that could involve the death penalty, for alleged espionage at the Guantanamo base where he worked for nine months as a translator. The Pentagon is holding about 660 al-Qaida and Taliban terror suspects at the base, subjecting many to intensive interrogations about past and future terrorist attacks and the locations of fugitive suspects.

"We're so desperate for Arabic speakers that we may end up getting people who speak the language but may not be 100 percent reliable," says Kevin Hendzel, head of ASET International Services, a translation firm with Pentagon contracts.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 27, 2003 7:56 AM