The conflicts between Muslim and non-Muslim servicemen and the suspicions of improper relationships with the detainees by Muslim chaplains had taken root at Guantánamo well before Captain Yee arrived.

"They were always under suspicion by the interrogators, because they were interacting with the detainees and giving them Korans. The M.P.'s suspected them all the time, too. They just didn't like the chaplains going around talking to the detainees."

"Lots of the guards saw us as some sort of sympathizers with the detainees," Airman Al Halabi recalled in one of several interviews. "We heard it many times: 'detainee-lovers,' or 'sympathizers.' They called us 'sand niggers.'"