Pentagon Reviewing Va. Chaplain School

Sept. 29 -- For the last six years, the Pentagon has relied on an unaccredited school in Leesburg, Va., to train and certify most of its 13 Muslim chaplains. But in the last 18 months the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences also has also been part of a federal investigation into possible financial ties to al Qaeda.

One of the chaplains mentioned in correspondence between the Pentagon and the school is Army Capt. James Yee, who was arrested by military authorities last week in an investigation into possible security breaches at the Guantanamo Bay naval base.

In an April 2000 letter obtained by ABCNEWS, the GSISS's executive dean, Ahmed Alwani, wrote to the office of the Army's Chief of Chaplains saying that while Yee was not a student at the school, the academic qualifications he had earned elsewhere were the equivalent of courses offered at GSISS. The letter said that had he been a student at GSISS, he would have met the school's requirements for a Master of Islamic Practice degree. Read the letter.

The school, part of a network of organizations set up in 1997 with money from Saudi Arabian sources, says that Yee was never a student there, was not endorsed by the school and is not known personally by any GSISS employee.

A Matter of Reputation — and National Security

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Still, since last year, the GSISS and its president, Taha Jabir Alalwani, have been part of a federal investigation into possible financial ties to al Qaeda. The school has denied having any terrorist ties and until recently, the Pentagon has not conducted its own review, sources told ABCNEWS.

But one Muslim group says that for the sake of national security — and the reputation of Muslim chaplains — the Pentagon needs to reevaluate its reliance on the Virginia school.

"What you have here is a situation where the possibility of a breach of national security," said Qaseem Uqda, executive director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council. "So until that has been cleared, you should not endorse chaplains. … If their doctrine is to cause harm, they could easily plant the seed within one of our troops."