Java News from Sunday, January 4, 2004

The New York Times has published the results of an investigation into the arrest of Captain James Yee for espionage at Guantanamo Bay. It appears that the conspiracy of which he and two other Muslim soldiers were charged amounted to nothing more than having dinner together on Friday nights and attending chapel services together. Meeting with your coreligionists is now an arrestable offence for which you can be tossed in solitary confinement and locked in leg irons for months.

This is making it clearer than ever that in three of the four espionage cases at Guantanamo Bay, the charges were based on nothing more than racial and religious prejudice. (The fourth case was likely a screwup, or just maybe an attempt on the part of the Army to cover their collective ass so it didn't look like they were only targetting Muslims.) Why any Muslim or Arabic-speaker would even consider serving in the U.S. military after this mess is beyond me.