*SOLDIER, SAILOR, AIRMAN, SPIES? The Washington Times broke the story last week that the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may be riddled with Islamist spies. First, the Times reported that Army Capt. James J. Yee, the Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo, had been arrested on suspicion of espionage. Then the Times reported that Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi, an Air Force translator, had also been arrested on suspicion of espionage. Finally, the Times and other news outlets reported the Defense Department is investigating yet a third serviceman, this time a sailor. The reports raise serious questions about the security at the isolated base, where the U.S. is holding more than 600 Taliban and al Qaeda terror suspects. It also raises questions about the relationship between the Defense Department and the Muslim groups that endorse military chaplains.
*WAHHABI MONOPOLY: Only three Muslim groups are involved in developing and selecting Muslim chaplains for the military, the Times reported. All three are associated with the radical Wahhabi branch of Islam that is dominant in Saudi Arabia.
"One of the three Muslim groups involved in training or providing chaplains is the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va.," reported the Times’ Rowan Scarborough. "U.S. government agents raided that group last year as part of a sweep of organizations suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terror network. The graduate school trains would-be military chaplains. The other two groups endorse the candidates."
*HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH: "The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council in Arlington [Va.] sponsored Capt. Yee," Scarborough reported. The council was given this task by the American Muslim Federation (AMF). "The AMF," said Scarborough, "was founded by Abdurahman Alamoudi, an acknowledged supporter of the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Mr. Alamoudi in 2000 contributed money to the Senate campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. She returned it after Mr. Alamoudi’s anti-Jewish sentiments were made public."
*CHARACTER WITNESS: "The second Pentagon-approved endorser is the Islamic Society of North America," Scarborough reported. "One of its board members, Siraj Wahhaj, was named in 1995 by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as one of more than 100 ‘unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators’ in the attempt to blow up New York monuments. Mr. Wahhaj also served as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abel Rahman, who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Mr. Wahhaj was never convicted of a crime."
*NO PLANS HERE: The Pentagon told Scarborough it has no plans to review the chaplain accreditation process. But Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said there should be an expedited investigation of the groups, which he said "are financed by Saudi Arabia and follow the radical Wahhabi sect of Islam."
*UPON THESE FIELDS: Capt. Yee, the New York Times reported, began his conversion to Islam while attending West Point. The Times first took note of Yee in an October 7, 2001 profile of Muslim chaplains. The paper reported then: "The newest Muslim chaplain is James J. Yee, a Chinese-American and a West Point graduate who was born into a Lutheran family, took an interest in Islam in college and deepened his convictions while stationed at Fort Knox, Ky., where he was studying vehicle maintenance during the month of Ramadan alongside four visiting Egyptian army officers. In a telephone interview, Chaplain Yee said he left the military to attend a traditional Islamic school in Damascus, Syria, where he spent four years studying Arabic and religion. He is serving with the 29th Signal Battalion at Fort Lewis, Wash."
*PICKERING, TOO? Last year, when the Democrats controlled the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, led by then-Chairman Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.), voted on party lines against sending the appellate court nomination of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering to the full Senate. This year, Bush re-nominated Pickering, who hails from Mississippi. Now, with the Republicans in charge of the Senate again, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) believes he has the votes to send Pickering to the full Senate. He is planning to do so this week. Then the question becomes: Will the Republicans play hardball or will they let Pickering die at the hands of a passive Democratic filibuster-just as they did with the appellate court nomination of Miguel Estrada?
*FAST START: A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 423 Democrats nationwide (margin of error +/-5%) released September 22 showed retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark jumping out to a big lead in his incipient presidential campaign. The results: Clark, 22%; former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, 13%; Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, 11%; Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, 11%; and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, 10%. Can Clark sustain it? See this week’s cover story.
