The Chaplain Problem: What gives with imams (and others) in the military?

Abdurahman Alamoudi presented the first imam in the United States Armed Forces with the military's newest insignia, a silver crescent moon, at Army captain Abdul Muhammad's commissioning service in 1993. The American Muslim Foundation-established by Alamoudi-had created the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council in 1991 to "certify Muslim chaplains hired by the military," and the Pentagon recently confirmed that until 1998, he served in a non-salaried position, nominating and screening candidates to be Muslim chaplains in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Alamoudi could afford to donate his services to the military. Long suspected of having terrorist ties, Alamoudi, a native of Eritrea who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1996, was arrested at Dulles airport on September 28 and charged with illegally accepting money from Libya-six weeks after British authorities caught him trying to smuggle $340,000 into Syria. While Alamoudi was on his most recent travels- using his Yemeni passport-to Great Britain, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Libya, Captain James "Yousef" Yee, one of the Muslim chaplains his council recommended to the Army, was detained on suspicion that he engaged in espionage at Guantanamo Bay.

While the military tracks down terrorists halfway around the world, little attention has been paid to the suspects in its own ranks who should have raised red flags. There are twelve Muslim chaplains on active duty, ministering to about 4,200 Muslims in the armed services. Despite the recent arrest, the Pentagon defends its hiring practices by officially stating that it is not conducting any review of its chaplaincy-appointment policy as a result of Captain Yee's detention. A Pentagon spokesman confirms that there is a review in progress, undertaken a year ago, designed to assess the requirements for all 2,800 chaplains-priests, rabbis, etc.-on active duty in order to "simplify administrative procedures." In the case of Islam, the Pentagon empowers two institutions to certify chaplains: the Islamic Society of North America and the council founded by Alamoudi. Both groups receive funding from Saudi Arabia, and federal officials believe both have terrorist ties, now apparently confirmed in the case of Alamoudi's outfit.

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, Republican senator Jon Kyl of Arizona has held hearings on Saudi financing of the efforts of the radical Wahhabi sect to recruit terrorists in the United States. "It is remarkable that people who have known connections to terrorism are the only people to approve these chaplains," he says, calling the Pentagon's review of all its chaplains "the height of politically correct stupidity." On October 14, he plans to hold hearings to try to learn what the Pentagon appears uninterested in knowing. "We need to find out if there are systematic efforts by Wahhabists allied with al- Qaeda to dominate the cleric-selection process of not only the U.S. military, but also the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, preaching jihad to disaffected Americans. [This issue] requires thorough examination."

Captain Yee, who has not been charged, was allegedly found with a laptop containing diagrams of the facilities at the detention base, along with lists of prisoners' names and the names of CIA, FBI, and military personnel conducting interrogations. Yee is a 1990 West Point graduate who rejoined the Army as a chaplain after converting to Islam and spending four years studying in Syria. In addition to Captain Yee, two others who were assisting with the interrogation of 660 enemy detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been arrested.

One is Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, a native of Syria who came to the U.S. as a teenager and served as a translator at Guantanamo Bay for nine months; he has been charged with espionage for attempting to pass military secrets to Syria. The information he is alleged to have attempted to share includes flight information on military personnel, as well as the names and cellblock numbers of prisoners and operations orders for their transfer. Al-Halabi was reportedly under investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations while a supply clerk in California, before being assigned to Guantanamo.

For the third arrest, the Customs Service gets the credit. Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, a civilian under contract as an Arabic translator at Guantanamo, was free of any suspicion when he was routinely searched at Logan airport after arriving on a flight from Cairo late last month. He was arrested when officials found a compact disc containing classified documents about the detention camp in his bags. Mehalba joined the Army in 2000 but washed out of a training course for military interrogators. While he was in the Army at Fort Huachuca, his girlfriend there was discharged after a search of her quarters-following her arrest for stealing a car-turned up a stolen laptop computer and classified information about her training. Mehalba was a Boston cab driver when, two days after the 9/11 attacks, he unsuccessfully tried to land a job as a gate guard at Logan airport.

While the apparent infiltration of the most secure military installation in the world has commanded the headlines, those most familiar with terrorist networks see a bigger story. According to Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project, a leading anti-terrorist watchdog group, "There is a cancer problem in the whole body that only surfaced in Guantanamo Bay." In 1996, Emerson wrote two op-eds for the Wall Street Journal sounding the alarm about Abdurahman Alamoudi's meetings with senior White House officials. He detailed the American Muslim Council's "consistent record of support for radical Islamic groups." He called on the Clinton administration "to stop giving aid and comfort to those who have declared themselves America's enemies."

This particular enemy of America, Alamoudi, actually went on to serve as an official emissary for Americans: In the late 1990s, the State Department paid him to make six trips as a goodwill ambassador to the Middle East. Five years later, Alamoudi was still a welcome visitor at the White House. In June 2001, he attended a briefing on President Bush's faith-based initiative, and he was invited by the White House to the prayer service at the National Cathedral following the 9/11 attacks.

Emerson is now sounding the alarm about radical Islamists in uniform. A year ago, he put together a presentation about the infiltration of the American military by Islamic militants and briefed senior Pentagon officials. His report stated that "militant Islamic terrorists have used the United States military for training in their preparation for jihad against the West, and as cover for operational support and intelligence gathering." Emerson explained that Islamic fundamentalists were using the military to propagate their ideology and to recruit new members through the military-chaplain programs; he says his concerns were "shrugged off" by the officials he spoke with. In March, Sergeant Hasan Akbar killed two officers in a grenade attack in Kuwait.

A moderate Muslim organization, aligned with Shiite Islam, also claims to have been ignored by the Defense Department. The Universal Muslim Association of America has tried unsuccessfully to be approved to certify Muslim clerics. Its spokesman explains, "The Defense Department should be aware that there are two main forms of Islam [Sunni and Shiite] and that it was only Wahhabism [a branch of Sunnism] that is being represented."

Several years ago, an expert on extremist groups testified to Congress about the threat posed by infiltration of the military. He told the lawmakers that "members of the military are extremely attractive recruits for extremist organizations. Those with specialized training and access to sophisticated weaponry and classified information are especially valuable." He was talking in 1996 about the KKK. A Defense Department directive declared that active participation in white- supremacist groups was incompatible with military service.

Senator Kyl now sees a conspiracy fueled by a different radical ideology-one that it seems the military chooses not to see at all.