By Glenn Minnis AP April 15, 2004, 8:55 AM

Army Drops Gitmo Chaplain Charges

Army Capt. James Yee departs his military hearing at Ft. Benning, Ga., Monday, Dec. 8, 2003. Yee, 35, is charged with taking classified documents home with him from Guantanamo, Cuba, on a flight to Jacksonville, Fla., where he was detained Sept. 10. He was charged with disobeying an order by taking the material and with transporting classified documents improperly.

AP

All charges have been dropped against the Army Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling classified documents at the Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which houses suspected terrorists, the Army said Friday.

Capt. James Yee will be allowed to return his previous duty station at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington., said Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo.

The Army charged Yee last September with mishandling classified material, failing to obey an order, making a false official statement, adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly downloading pornography on his government laptop.

His lawyer said last week that a proposed settlement was in the works.

Miller said Yee will be offered nonjudicial punishment for allegations of adultery and pornography.

Yee, a 1990 West Point graduate who left the military for four years to study Arabic and Islam in Syria, returned as a chaplain and counseled some of the prison's 660 detainees from more than 40 countries.

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