CPJ calls for release of AP photographer in Iraq

Iraqi AP photojournalist held by US without charge for a year, journalists call for his release

by Jon Mitchell

01 May 2007    

The Committee to Protect Journalists in the USA has called for the US military to release Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photo-journalist who is Iraqi by nationality - as most of the news photographers there are mostly these days in Iraq.

Mr Hussein - a Pulitzer Prize winner - was taken by US armed forces on 12 April 2006 in the western city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Al Anbar province.

He is held in a US prison in Iraq for "imperative reasons of security."

One year on, he has not been tried or charged with any crime (quel suprise!), and the military themselves have disclosed no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

"The United States must release our colleague Bilal Hussein," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "The authorities have had a full year to produce evidence and bring charges but have failed to do so."

According to the AP, the most specific allegation cited by US officials - that Hussein was involved in the Iraqi insurgent kidnapping of two Arab journalists in Ramadi.

However, this charge was discredited after AP investigated the US military's claim.

The two abducted journalists had not implicated Hussein in the kidnapping; they had instead praised him for his assistance when they were released.

The US military's only evidence supporting its claim appeared to be images of the released journalists that were found in Hussein's camera, AP said.

Only a month before Hussein's arrest, US Major General John Gardner told Reuters he established a new process to ensure high-level, 36-hour reviews of all journalist detentions. He ordered U.S. troops across Iraq to report the arrest of anyone claiming to be a journalist to him personally. He also said news organizations would be given the chance to vouch for their journalists. The change, he added, was designed to ensure that "we don't hold someone for six or eight months" and applied only to journalists whom the military did not label "security threats." It set no apparent standards of due process.

Perhaps like American policy on Iraq, this appears to be simple military spin. As the fact Mr Hussein is still in jail, belies any claim by American brass.

Hussein's detention is not an isolated incident. Over the last three years, dozens of journalists - mostly Iraqis - have been detained by U.S. troops, according to CPJ research. While most have been released after short periods, in at least eight cases documented by CPJ Iraqi journalists have been held by US forces for weeks or months without charge or conviction.

The US military continues to hold Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj in detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Al-Haj, first detained in Pakistan in December 2001, has not been charged or provided due process. CPJ outlined the case and called for due process in a special report in October 2006, "The Enemy?" ( http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/DA_fall_06/prisoner/prisoner.html ).

Many journalists have condemned the US military's attitude towards the press, which can often be described as high-handed at best. Compared to the kidnap of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, the lack of protest of this AP photographer's plight reveals something of our double-standards.

I myself have had lots of problems with Americans, who I suspect think the media are buyable, bribeable, bullyable or all three. Personally, I would advise military officers in any military to read up about the role of the press in society, as Hitler tried to control everything - a la US military public affairs style - and look where that got him!

For some background on this, you may want to see my blog http://censored-by-the-usa.blogspot.com