Author to recount Guantanamo experiences

Amanda Melillo Co-Editor in Chief

James Yee, former United States Army chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, will be coming to Vassar to discuss his experiences at the infamous detention center. After returning from service at Guantanamo in Sept. 2003, Yee was arrested on charges of sedition and espionage when U.S. Customs found a list of detainees and interrogators in his bag. His book about the experiences of Muslim detainees, For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, was published after charges against him were lessened and he retired from the army with an honorable discharge.

Yee, a Chinese American, converted to Islam after graduating from West Point. His religious training in Syria prepared him for the position as chaplain, ministering to Muslim detainees with whom he formed attachments. In his book, he discusses the guards’ developed hatred towards prisoners and the punishments inflicted on people that had little inside knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. English Professor Amitava Kumar, who brought Seton Hall University’s Guantanamo Bay Teach-In to Vassar via Webcast and helped to organize Yee’s visit, said in an e-mailed statement, “We think of Guantanamo as another, wholly different world, and indeed it is. It is a place where ordinary U.S. laws, and the rights of the citizens, do not apply.”

Kumar added, “I have read [his book], and I’m hoping he will be able to tell our students what are the ways in which the U.S. has built a place that is a sort of a black zone. At the same time, however, there’s a part of me that believes that what Guantanamo reveals in a naked way is what it is already present here on the mainland and as a part of the mainstream society.”

Yee’s account of Guantanamo, and his 76-day solitary confinement after his 2003 arrest brought abuses at “Gitmo” to the forefront of America’s awareness. Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Sam Speers said in an e-mailed statement, “Leading scholars today question whether our notions of citizenship in liberal democracies allow for Muslims to represent themselves as Muslims. Yee's disturbing story makes clear these are questions we need to take seriously.”

Office of Religious and Spiritual Life intern Charmaine Chua ’08 anticipated the discussions that Yee’s visit will inspire: “My hope is that James Yee’s visit will open up more inquiry into the climate of religious expression at Vassar and in the world, since his desire to promote freedom of religious expression is an especially pressing message for our campus and our time.”

Yee’s visit is coordinated by the Religion Department, the English Department and the Office of Residential and Spiritual Life. Yee’s lecture will take place on Feb. 27 at 5 p.m. in Sanders Auditorium.