A classic plotline of spy novels is that the secret agent turns out to be the quiet bespectacled fellow next door. U.S. Army Captain James Yee, being held by the government as part of its probe of espionage at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, fits the prototype almost perfectly.
One of five children born to devout Chinese Lutherans, Jimmy, as he was known at Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield, N.J., was a champion wrestler, an ace student and "a low-maintenance guy," according to his coach. A high school teammate recalls his wiry, 100-lb. friend as "well-mannered, disciplined and studious." Yee earned a...