'They put us in a cell and forgot about us'

American filmmaker of Iranian descent, Cyrus Kar, was freed over the weekend after 7 weeks of confinement in a dark, solitary cell in Camp Cropper, outside of Baghdad. After his family brought his story to the media, and the ACLU petitioned for a hearing on his behalf in Federal Court, he was freed. His passport was destroyed by FBI investigators, his clothes, a valuable ring, and over 20 hours of valuable footage for his historical documentary were all confiscated and destroyed. The ACLU says it will not drop its suit against the US government until Kar obtains a new passport and is allowed to travel home safely. According to the LA Times:

Kar, speaking to reporters, described long, frustrating days in solitary confinement with little information about his status or reason for being held. At the same time, Kar said he was well-treated while he was held and understood security concerns in war-torn Iraq.

"I don't hold anything against them for holding us," he said. "What I hold against them is they put us in a cell and forgot us."

[...]

"They knew from the get-go that we were nothing more than filmmakers," said Kar, who served in the Navy. "They saw my VA card in my wallet."

Kar called the circumstances of their May 17 arrest in the city of Balad "quite bizarre." He and Faraji had hired a taxi driver about an hour before the arrest. As the cab was waved through a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers, the driver pulled over and told authorities he had two Iranian filmmakers in his cab.

Iraqis sometimes suspect Iranian pilgrims and businesspeople of being spies for the religious regime in Tehran.

The soldiers searched the car and in the trunk found the three dozen washing machine timers. The driver admitted the timers were his, but the soldiers arrested all three men, handing them over to Americans.

Kar said he repeatedly asked to see someone from the embassy but no one came until Saturday.

He said he also asked for an attorney but never saw one.

Kar said he passed a lie detector test in which he was asked whether they belonged to the insurgency. His eight weeks of confinement were dull. He was not allowed to speak to any of the detainees that were housed with him, he said. He spent his days reading through the Geneva Convention, which he can now practically recite.

At a news conference Sunday in Los Angeles, Kar's cousin Shahrzad Folger said, "The three phone conversations he had with us" while he was detained provided "the most information he had been given the entire time."

[...]

For both Kar and Faraji, the experience was difficult and nerve-racking.

Faraji, who bathed himself in hot water for nearly 30 minutes after arriving at the hotel, said being locked up amid the squalor of Abu Ghraib shook his faith in the U.S.

At the prison, he said, he was housed in a tent surrounded by barbed wire. He slept on dirty slippers as men urinated in containers next to him.

The experience has left Kar, who had supported the war in Iraq, with a changed outlook on American policy. He said he still believes the U.S. should bring democracy to fascist states, "but it must be done by competent administrators."