Agent Says He Got Tip on Chaplain

A U.S. customs agent testified Monday that a tip from another federal agency led to the discovery of “suspicious” documents stashed in a backpack belonging to Army Chaplain Capt. James Joseph Yee, who is accused of mishandling classified materials from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison.

During a preliminary hearing here to determine whether Yee would face a court-martial, special agent Sean Rafferty said that two notebooks, two smaller notepads and a list of typed names and phone numbers were seized from Yee in September when he arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., on a flight from the Cuban base. Some of the documents, Rafferty said, appeared to be related to security at Guantanamo, as well as the Afghan war and Islamic terrorist detainees held there.

“It was determined the documents were of interest to national security,” the agent said. Rafferty added that one “piece of paper typewritten from the military” contained “information on detainees and also interrogators.”

Yee, 35, an Islamic chaplain who refers to himself as Yousef, faces a two-day hearing to decide whether he should face an Army court-martial board on accusations that he mishandled classified documents and made false statements. Monday’s session was presided over by an Army investigating officer, Maj. Daniel Trimble, who questioned witnesses, along with military prosecutors and Yee’s civilian defense lawyer, Eugene Fidell.

Yee’s detention, followed by three other arrests of military personnel from Guantanamo, raised concerns about security inside the installation, where 660 prisoners have been held since the Afghan war. But initial concerns about an espionage ring inside the base foundered when Yee was later charged on lesser military counts of mishandling documents and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Fidell asserted Monday that military officials were stacking the deck against the chaplain by not providing him with long-sought documents until the last moment. The lawyer said he repeatedly had demanded to see copies of seized classified materials, records of Yee’s interrogations and search warrants. But a sheaf of documents was delivered Monday, Fidell said, after the hearing had begun.

The defense lawyer also complained that Army officials notified him Monday that he had finally been granted a security clearance to review classified materials.

“They’re playing trial by ambush,” Fidell said. “This would never happen in a [civilian] federal court.”

Fidell made little headway in learning more about the classified documents in open court. Rafferty said he could not detail what was found in the documents or divulge the name of the federal agency that requested Yee’s detention Sept. 10 after a flight to the naval air station in Jacksonville.

The customs agent said that the chaplain was detained after “I observed Capt. Yee trying to leave the baggage claim area without being cleared by inspectors.”

After his arrest, Yee was held for 67 days in a Navy brig in Charleston, N.C.; the Army released him Nov. 25. During that period, military authorities also charged an Air Force Arabic translator with espionage and accused a civilian interpreter and an Army colonel of mishandling classified materials from Guantanamo.

The New Jersey-born Yee, a 1990 West Point graduate, left the military for four years to travel to Syria, where he studied Arabic and Islam. He returned to the Army as a chaplain before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was assigned to counsel some of the Guantanamo detainees.

Married with a 4-year-old daughter, Yee also has been accused by the Army of adultery and of loading pornography on his computer.

On Monday, Navy reserve Lt. Karyn Wallace said under questioning from Trimble that she began an affair with Yee in July. Wallace laughed nervously as she described having more than 20 sexual encounters with Yee in the following months. Army prosecutor Maj. Timothy McDonnell also introduced a photograph that showed Yee and Wallace together during a conference in Orlando, Fla.

Yee’s wife, Huda, remained composed as she sat through portions of the hearing with the couple’s daughter, Sarah. But she finally left and sobbed outside the courtroom door.

Approached by a reporter afterward, Huda Yee said she supported her husband. “I don’t imagine this is really happening in the U.S.,” she said.

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Times staff writer Stephen Braun in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.