# Fuckwit of the Month Club Selection: Captain James Yee
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 23, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225 "2003-09-23T02:00:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/1 "2003-09-23T02:00:04Z")
Congratulations, you fucking moron. You were caught with holding area diagrams for Guantanamo plus lists of prisoners and their interrogators. You are a Muslim chaplain who ministers to those prisoners. Did you pause for one moment to consider the implications of your actions? Some [excerpts](http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/09/22/chaplain.arrest/index.html):
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> “The official said the documents included “diagrams of the cells and the facilities at Guantanamo,” where the military is holding about 600 suspected al Qaeda and other so-called enemy combatants. Yee also allegedly was carrying lists of the detainees as well as their interrogators, the official said. In addition, Yee is suspected of having ties to radical Muslims in the United States that are now under investigation, the official said, adding that he couldn’t elaborate.”
The current administration has a keen interest in all things Muslim, and it’s not a good kind of interest. Do you think that your actions may serve as just one more excuse to clamp down on Muslim activities and possibly even deny the detainees at Gitmo proper religious counseling? From all appearances, you seem to have betrayed not only your own country but your obligation to correctly minister to your flock. Good work, you have single-handedly managed to make a further mess of something that is already a major fucking trainwreck. Moron asshole!
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### Author:  [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/2 "2003-09-23T03:42:39Z")
I’m torn -
On the one hand, if detainee Amir Habibi tells his chaplain that his interrogator won’t let him sleep, and the man in the next cell is spitting on him, why shouldn’t the chaplain have easy access to the necessary information?
On the other hand, if having this information is prohibited to him for any reason, if if it’s because “the colonel said so”, and he ought to know whether it was, these charges certainly seem justified. Treason would seem to be a stretch, to me.
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### Author:  [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/3 "2003-09-23T20:56:55Z")
Some more interesting news from the [Gitmo](http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/09/23/airforce.detainee/index.html) front:
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> "Officials said Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi was arrested July 23 because he allegedly had classified information about suspected al Qaeda detainees and facilities at the Guantanamo Bay base on his laptop computer.
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> He is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
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> Al Halabi was charged with 11 counts of failing to obey a lawful general order or regulation, three counts of aiding the enemy, four counts of espionage, nine counts of making a false statement and five counts that include violations of the Federal Espionage Act.
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> He is also being charged with a single count of bank fraud.
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> Al Halabi’s home base was Travis Air Force Base in California, but he had served nine months at Guantanamo Bay as a translator between the detainees and investigators."
They do not cite any connection between Yee and Halabi as of yet.
All I know is that these idiots have most likely caused every single honorable Muslim in the armed forces to go under the microscope. Way to go, you assholes. Good way to spread the faith. While I understand that these two people might have felt compelled to secure the release of their fellow believers from what they may view as unjustified confinement, as members of the armed forces, they should have realized that they were already subject to scrutiny well above and beyond that of any ordinary citizens.
Allowing one’s faith to blind your own rationality is basically what started all this madness in the first place. Great job, guys.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/4 "2003-09-23T21:07:50Z")
What use is this information to the enemies of the USA? I cannot see it. It seems the motivation was to denounce human rights abuses. It’s still illegal but it is not like they were helping Al Qaeda. That’s my first impression. The fact that they were Muslims is completely irrelevant.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/5 "2003-09-23T21:21:40Z")
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> Good way to spread the faith.
To him, maybe this is the way to do it. The hijackers certainly thought they were.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/6 "2003-09-23T21:41:48Z")
I think we need a lot more spies in Guantanamo. I trust this cleric a hell of a lot more than I trust anything coming out of the White House. I say kudos for anyone who can get some news out to the public.
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### Author:  [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/7 "2003-09-23T22:05:55Z")
Pity. Yee’s kinda cute.
Esprix
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### Author:  [@bri1600bv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bri1600bv)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/8 "2003-09-23T22:22:19Z")
Part of his documentation of “human rights abuses” are the names and family addresses of the guards. What possible use could that be? Umm…how about give it someone who will kill them and/or their families.
How about giving the names of Al Queda people there to Al Queda, so they know who has been compromised. Could that be a reason for having their names?
How would having prisoners’ names or guards’ names help document “human rights abuses”. As if there even are any.
You have no problem with that. Wish you could send some more spies down there?
And let me get this straight. The tragedy is not that US military personel have their lives endangered. No, that’s nothing. It’s not that lists of prisoners get out to Al Queda which helps them. No, that’s no problem. The real tragedy is it makes Muslims look bad. Because the White House “has it in for them”, yeah is that like when George Bush says for the millionth time that Islam is a “religion of peace”? Yeah, he “has it in for them”. Locking up Muslim citizens right and left, right?
I can’t wait until they hang this guy, that’s what they do to traitors. But since he’s a Muslim and Asian that will be considered “racist”, right?
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### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/9 "2003-09-23T22:44:03Z")
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> \*Originally posted by sailor \*
> \*\*What use is this information to the enemies of the USA? I cannot see it. It seems the motivation was to denounce human rights abuses. It’s still illegal but it is not like they were helping Al Qaeda. That’s my first impression. The fact that they were Muslims is completely irrelevant. \*\*
The first thing you want if you’re on either side of a hostage and/or escape situation is the building plan. They work just as well if you’re trying to break out as they do if you’re trying to break in–maybe better.
The Marines will tell you that the prisoners would never make it even if you painted a red line straight from their cells to the back door, through the minefield to the hole in the fence, through the cactus wall and straight to Castro’s villa, and my money would be on the Marines.
But you can bet your ass they don’t want those guys having those plans anyway.
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### Author:  [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/10 "2003-09-23T23:38:41Z")
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> \*Originally posted by bri1600bv \*
> Part of his documentation of “human rights abuses” are the names and family addresses of the guards. What possible use could that be? Umm…how about give it someone who will kill them and/or their families.
That’s one damn good reason to have detained these soldiers for having such information.
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> How about giving the names of Al Queda people there to Al Queda, so they know who has been compromised. Could that be a reason for having their names?
And that’s an even better one.
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> How would having prisoners’ names or guards’ names help document “human rights abuses”. As if there even are any.
There may well have been human rights abuses. We do not know this for sure. I’d tend to bet that (except for interrogation practices) the rest of the soldiers keeping the peace down there are being pretty scrupulous about their treatment of the detainees. If you’re humiliating and generally abusing the inmates, it pretty much guarantees that none of them are going to want to cooperate. We need their cooperation, some of them may have vital information. I seem to recall us having gotten some pretty hot leads already.
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> You have no problem with that. Wish you could send some more spies down there?
WTF? Where in Hell did that come from?!?
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> And let me get this straight. The tragedy is not that US military personel have their lives endangered. No, that’s nothing. It’s not that lists of prisoners get out to Al Queda which helps them. No, that’s no problem. The real tragedy is it makes Muslims look bad. Because the White House “has it in for them”, yeah is that like when George Bush says for the millionth time that Islam is a “religion of peace”? Yeah, he “has it in for them”. Locking up Muslim citizens right and left, right?
You’re a little new here so I’m going to try and let this slide. If you knew how much flack I’ve gotten for my stance on terrorism, you might have an inkling as to how off base you are.
Shrub and the gang on capitol hill have made a dog’s breakfast out of our foreign policy. Calling the war on terrorism a “crusade” was a shining example of their ineptitude. They’ve managed a few other dillies as well. The incredible amount of lies and half truths about Iraq come to mind. You seem to infer that I do not give a fig about the safety of those overseeing the detainees. Again, you’re off in the weeds with that one. My major concern is not that Muslims are made to look bad. What worries me is the sort of genius level crapola Ashcroft and his henchmen will come up with while using these two morons as their excuse.
So long as Shrub keeps up the Bible thumping and saying that God directed him to invade Iraq and other little fucking inflammatory spewings like that, I’m really worried about how this administration keeps painting terrorist crosshairs on our backs. Religious diversity is one of the most important contributors to America’s greatness. Shrub’s continual bootlicking of the so-called moral majority leaves me very concerned that he will polarize our nation in ways not seen for over a century.
These two idiots have managed to stuff more bullets into Shrub’s already well stocked belt. If Gitmo was wiped off of the map tomorrow, it would cause less harm to our nation than the curtailments of personal liberty that the white house gang has put in place. Giving these reactionary loonies any more reason to expand their suppression of our liberties pisses me off to no end and that’s why I note the capture of these two. Making out Islam or any other religions as dangerous to the United States only fuels their juggernaut.
We’ve already seen Shrub declare gay marriage to be null and void. He’s interfered with stem cell research and seems Hell bent on reversing Roe v Wade. I’m fucking sick of seeing our fair land thrust back into the dark ages.
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> I can’t wait until they hang this guy, that’s what they do to traitors. But since he’s a Muslim and Asian that will be considered “racist”, right?
There’s nothing “racist” about executing (convicted) traitors. However, if you’re jumping up and down because they’re Asian or Muslim, yeah, that makes you just another moron in my book.
**Sofa King** , thank you for your typically insightful post. There’s a lot to worry about with these two. I’d wager we already have a lot of their cohorts under close watch already. Otherwise, their arrests would never have made the headlines.
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/11 "2003-09-23T23:42:20Z")
[nitpick] **Zenster** , I think **bri** was talking to **Diogenes**. S/he’s on your side, dude.[/nitpick]
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### Author:  [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/12 "2003-09-24T00:40:40Z")
**SG** , after carefully scrutinizing **bri** ’s post, I agree with you. Thanks for the tip.
**bri** , we may be more in agreement than I previously thought. Let me know if you have any problems with my own position on these two fuckwits and we can hash it out later. After, we’re already in the Pit. Things couldn’t be more convenient, now could they?
PS: Welcome aboard(s), **bri1600bv**!
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### Author:  [@bri1600bv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bri1600bv)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/13 "2003-09-24T00:43:30Z")
I was responding to the person who said they trust spies who are trying to kill Americans more than “anything coming out of the White House”.
But “curtail civil liberties”? What? I keep hearing this over and over but I don’t think any citizens have had their liberties curtailed. Some Arabs who overstayed their visas were detained. Is that what you mean? I keep hearing that “the government is now spying on all the books we buy or read at the library” but it’s nonsense. Most of the Patriot Act allows law enforcement to communicate with each other.
For example the FBI found all kinds of notes in the apartments of the first WTC bombers. They were in Arabic though, and they didn’t translate them with any urgency. If they were allowed to talk to the CIA they would have been able to put 2 and 2 together. Everyone wants to know “why couldn’t our intelligence figure this out?”. Well, the Patriot Act allows them to work together. The CIA can now talk to the FBI. No one is surveiled or has their phone bugged without a court order.
So as far as the civil liberties thing, I just don’t see it. I see no curtailment WHATSOEVER.
As for Roe v. Wade, do you realize that even if it were overturned it would affect at most one or two states? It would not outlaw abortions, it would kick the issue back to state legislators. Abortion was LEGAL in most or at least many states prior to Roe v. Wade. That’s actually what the case was about, someone traveling to get a legal abortion. The whole “Roe v. Wade overturned = coathangers” is just another liberal bugaboo. It’s meaningless. But it does help their fund drives.
I think tolerance of other religions is great, but many Muslims seem to have more allegiance to their religion than the US. Not most, probably, but I remember the dancing in the Muslim areas of NYC on TV. These people were thrilled. With fundamentalist Islam, they totally reject the idea of a secular state. To them, it makes no sense. So many Muslims, even the peaceful ones, basically want the constition ripped up in exactly the way you accuse John Ashcroft of wanting it. But there’s no way you’d be concerned about them. We must show tolerance for people who want to destroy us and intolerance for people who are actually trying to save us from bloodthirsty murderers.
As far as GB creating a bullseye on our back: it was already there. There’s nothing he could do to make it worse. In fact I would give him at least some credit for detaining illegal foreigners. This may have prevented further attacks.
There is such as thing as the sentinal effect, whereas someone does such a good job guarding something that the initial threat is seen as insignificant. Of course, when the “sentinal” is dismissed (b/c of the lack of a threat) then the threat comes back.
I would just love to see Dean get in there and release all Gitmo detainees and stop all terror investigations and have the country torn asunder with car bombs, hijackings, chemical attacks, whatever. He’d probably blame it on Jerry Falwell (he’s the only religious person that it’s OK to denigrate).
Gay marriage null and void? I think you’re just a little paranoid. He said almost nothing about gay marriage. Gay marriage doesn’t exist in the US, so how could he make it null and void? Are you saying that the Canadiens who insisted on coming over as a married couple and were denied is all his fault? Whatever, it’s meaningless and wouldn’t be any different under a Democrat.
All I know about GB is he keeps saying this nonsense about Islam being a “religion of peace”. Well, the Jihadists have studied it quite a bit more than him, and they consider it anything but.
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### Author:  [@musicguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/musicguy)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/14 "2003-09-24T02:10:56Z")
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> \*Originally posted by bri1600bv \*
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> Gay marriage null and void? I think you’re just a little paranoid. He said almost nothing about gay marriage. \*\*
I guess it depends on your definition of “almost”.
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> WASHINGTON (CNN) (7/31/03) – President Bush indicated Wednesday he opposes extending marriage rights to homosexuals, saying he believes marriage “is between a man and a woman.”
Sounds like his position is pretty clear.
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### Author:  [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/15 "2003-09-24T03:24:55Z")
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> _by Zenster_
> Did you pause for one moment to consider the implications of your actions?
I think Yee may very well only have _been_ implying. He is a chaplain, and therefore one of the finest individuals in the military. I have known a few chaplains in my time and find it impossible to believe a man of God could or would use information that might risk the lives of his fellow servicemen and women. A military hanging for Yee? Fine. Set a precedent with the first military execution since Reenactment in 1984 – oh, and shall we bump him up past the other seven on Death Row so that he’s the first execution since 1961?
We don’t know, and we **won’t** know what these soldiers were intending with this information. And like it or not, in GTMO the US has one foot on War Crimes and the other on a banana peel. As an aside, what has been done to prevent the Guantanamo **parolees** from spilling their guts about the layout of the place?
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> _by Zenster_
> These two idiots have managed to stuff more bullets into Shrub’s already well stocked belt.
Most respectfully, I don’t agree. If the President is looking at this as an excuse to crack down on Muslims in the military, he’s got a long hump to shuffle. While I for one, don’t think their actions should be regarded as _heroic_, soldiers like Yee, al Halabi and even Asan Akbar are at the root demonstrating some of the dissent that permeates the US military.
Yee and al Halabi might one day be considered “standard-bearers” for us; maybe there is something untoward going on down there after all? Personally, making Yee and al Halabi grist for the media will simply make the _really_ bad guys in the military go farther underground.
I honestly think history will look poorly on the US for what’s happening in Cuba. This country has definitely gone far afield of the one I was brought up to adore.
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/16 "2003-09-24T03:29:50Z")
Man, those dudes are _sooooo_ fucked.
I bet they’ll be rotting in Ashcroft’s dungeon for the next few years.
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### Author:  [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/17 "2003-09-24T04:00:05Z")
Does anyone here have a friend of relative in Gitmo? It’s starting to sound like there may be a big morale problem among troops there…
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/18 "2003-09-24T04:30:03Z")
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> I was responding to the person who said they trust spies who are trying to kill Americans more than “anything coming out of the White House”.
That isn’t what I fucking said and it’s not cool to misattribute quotes around here. Now kindly go fuck yourself.
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### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/19 "2003-09-24T05:09:51Z")
**bri1600bv** :
> [@](#):
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> I was responding to the person who said they trust spies who are trying to kill Americans more than “anything coming out of the White House”.
**Diogenes the Cynic** said:
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> I think we need a lot more spies in Guantanamo. I trust this cleric a hell of a lot more than I trust anything coming out of the White House. I say kudos for anyone who can get some news out to the public.
followed by:
> [@](#):
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> That isn’t what I fucking said and it’s not cool to misattribute quotes around here.
Seems to me that’s exactly what you said. Either that or you attribute some noble goal to Yee’s espionage-“dude, he was just trying to spread the word, not get anyone killed or anything bad like that.”
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225/20 "2003-09-24T07:19:21Z")
**Diogenes the Cynic** said:
> [@](#):
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> I think we need a lot more spies in Guantanamo. I trust this cleric a hell of a lot more than I trust anything coming out of the White House. I say kudos for anyone who can get some news out to the public.
And you wonder why anti-war types have their patriotism questioned. This guy gets charged with espionage, trying to smuggle secret military documents possibly to Syria, and he gets a big, “Atta boy!” from DtC. And here’s hoping there’s lots more of them!
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and let you claim that you misspoke, or that you’re grossly misunderstood. Because if you really believe what you wrote above, you’re either a sympathizer with your country’s enemies, or you’re an idiot.
Do you know what kind of damage could have been done with this information? Forget the location of cells - I don’t think anyone was going to bust anyone out of Guantanamo. But information regarding just what intelligence the U.S. got through interrogation, who was interrogated and when, and other details of what’s going on there could blow anti-terror operations all over the world. You think the information gained in Guantanamo isn’t being acted on?
That information being smuggled out could have set U.S. anti-terror operations back tremendously, and therefore cost many innocent lives all over the world.
But you’re too wrapped up in your Bush hatred to think about that, right?
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-of-the-month-club-selection-captain-james-yee/203225.md?page=2)