Arrested Muslim activist helped pick chaplains for U.S. military

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A leading Muslim activist arrested for reportedly violating U.S. sanctions against Libya once helped select and train Islamic military chaplains as part of a Pentagon-approved process being investigated by the Defense Department and Congress.

Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, founder of the American Muslim Council and the American Muslim Foundation, was involved with the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council and the Islamic Society of North America, two groups that selected and trained Muslim clerics for the U.S. military, authorities said.

One of those clerics was Army Capt. James J. Yee, a Muslim chaplain who counseled al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Accused of espionage, Capt. Yee was arrested Sept. 10. He is being held at a naval brig in Charleston, S.C.

Last week, the Defense Department ordered a review of how it recruits chaplains, particularly Muslim clerics endorsed by U.S. groups with reported ties to radical Islam. The Islamic Society of North America and the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council are the only such groups recognized by the Pentagon.

The Pentagon's selection process also will be the focus of an investigation by the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security, whose chairman, Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, wants to know who allowed the two groups to become the determining bodies for chaplains.

"It is remarkable that people who have known connections to terrorism are the only people to approve these chaplains," Mr. Kyl said.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said an investigation would allow the Senate to determine whether the groups responsible for choosing and training Muslim chaplains are affiliated with radical Islamic organizations. He recently told reporters the U.S. military had given extremists "a monopoly on who becomes an imam in the military."

Most of the Muslim chaplains endorsed by the two groups were trained at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va. Last year, federal agents raided the school. No charges were filed.

The Washington Times was first to report on Capt. Yee's arrest, noting that the 1990 West Point graduate was detained by federal agents as he arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., on a military flight from Guantanamo.