Gitmo Chaplains for Obama

David Weigel | May 20, 2008

Former Guantanamo Bay Muslim Chaplain James Yee, author of a memoir on the experience, is a Barack Obama delegate.

Yee was elected Saturday at the 9th District convention at North Thurston High School, one of nine congressional caucuses Democrats had throughout the state.

"I came out and basically reiterated that Sen. Obama is really the only candidate that consistently campaigns on rejecting torture without exception, on closing Guantanamo Bay, restoring habeas (corpus) and adhering to the Geneva Conventions," Yee said Monday.

He added that he sees himself as "living proof that civil liberties have been eroded since 9/11" because of what he calls "fear-mongering politics" led by conservatives.

This brings to mind a depressing fact of the Obama campaign: the way his experience living with Muslims and the affinity Muslims have for him has become part of a smear. A little while back Jim Geraghty posted video of Palestinian Arabs gathering at an internet cafe and calling Americans to ask them to vote Obama. It was supposed to be horrifying on its face: "Palestinians in Gaza are phonebanking for Barack Obama!" And I suppose it's horrifying if you imagine that Arabs are communicating in a scrambled frequency, like the dogs in 101 Dalmatians, about how the weak and appeasing President Obama will turn his back on Israel. If you don't think that, though, it seems like... a bunch of Arabs telling Americans they want peace and like one of their potential leaders. Not Hamas members. Young Arabs, with those "hearts and minds" we're presumably trying to reach.

(Via Avi Zenilman)