AP Photographer still in prison 1 year later

Bilal Hussein, an AP photographer who was detained last April by American forces in Ramadi is still in American custody at Camp Cropper one year later. US spokesmen claim Hussein is "still a security threat."



The US military has provided no credible evidence to this effect, claim Hussein's lawyers. Quoting the AP:

Dozens of journalists - mostly Iraqis - have been detained by U.S. troops or Iraqi security forces during the war, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Most were released without a trial after short periods, and Hussein is the only one currently being held on such a long-term basis, according to CPJ executive director Joel Simon.

"It's unfathomable to me why, after an entire year, there has been no progress in terms of the legal process moving ahead," Simon said. "If the U.S. government is affirming that they need time to develop evidence ... a year is plenty of time."

Hussein, 35, is allowed one-hour visits from family members once a month. His attorney and AP colleagues also are allowed to see him.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, in a written response Tuesday to AP inquiries, said the case against Hussein has been reviewed four times - most recently in November - by three separate entities in Iraq, among them a review board that includes representatives of the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led coalition.

"Each of these independent, objective, fact-finding reviews considered all available evidence and determined Hussein represented an imperative threat to security and recommended continued detention," Whitman said.

Gardephe dismissed the idea that such hearings constitute due process. He pointed out that Hussein was not present and had no legal representative at those reviews, and had no chance to confront any witnesses against him or call witnesses on his own behalf.

AP executives went public with news about Hussein's detention in September after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations. They said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work for the AP found no inappropriate contact with insurgents.

The Prisoner

Another documentary on Abu Ghraib, featured in this month's Vanity Fair, is sure to make waves in the US in March. "The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair" is a surreal film about the arrest of journalist Yunis Khayater. His arrest, caught on tape by documentarist Michael Turner who included the footage in his awarding-winning Gunner's Palace. After the release of this documentary, Turner received an email from a "friend" of Yunis' -- Benjamin Thompson, an American who served at Abu Ghraib. He wanted contact Yunis, saying, "I felt that these people were my good friends and that we survived that hell together with support from one another. I truly love these people."

The story has a number of surreal elements, starting with Yunis' arrest for an alleged, far-fetched accusation that the journalist was plotting to kill Tony Blair. He was plunged into the nightmare world of Abu Ghraib where he met Thompson.

Read more in Vanity Fair, visit the film's site, or see the trailer here.

It's not easy being unembedded in Uruzgan

A number of Dutch journalists have been reporting from Uruzgan province since their force arrived earlier this year as part of the NATO force "stabilizing" Afghanistan. Only one, it seems, was willing to go it alone and report unembedded from the province. Arnold Karskens, quite a war-reporting legend in Holland, was allegedly mistreated by Dutch forces in his most recent trip to Uruzgan in which he remained unembedded.


Gov/Warlord Jan Mohammed, photo by Karskens

While reporting for Dutch newspapers and TV (in Dutch unfortunately) he was "sent back" at one roadblock on a public road. This from Spinwatch

Karskens was refused entry to the Dutch military base near Tarin Kowt, even though the commander of the base had earlier declared publicly that they would not distinguish between 'embedded' and free journalists. According to another journalist present in the military base who wrote about it in the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool, soldiers guarding the entrance of the base had instructions not to let Karskens in "unless one of his legs is shot off".

About this blog

We have not been able to maintain the blog from March-December 2006. We have republished it at this site, and hope that it will serve as a record and resource. If you have not already seen it, or if you would like to view it again, please take a moment to watch Taliban Country, the film which inspired this site.

Taliban Country was featured in a number of film festivals in 2004-5, and aired in six countries. It continues to be a reference and interest has not abated. It has only become more relevant in recent months with the recognized resurgence of the Taliban and the escalating war with NATO in Southern Afghanistan.

For queries regarding purchase, please contact Journeyman Films.

CBS Cameraman to be tried

The most under-reported story of the day from Iraq was the news that CBS Cameraman, Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, held for nearly a year without charge, will be prosecuted in Baghdad court shortly. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Hussein was picked up by US forces near Mosul in April 2005. While the charges and evidence against him remain secret, the US military has gone out of its way to paint him as guilty until proven innocent. US officials suspect him of having prior knowledge of the attacks he filmed, claim that he tested positive for explosive residue. (If that is enough to convict a war correspondent, one wonders how we would ever get any news from war zones.)

Taliban burning TV report viewable online

The Australian TV report depicting US troops burning Taliban bodies and using the moment to broadcast inflammatory messages into the mountains, is now viewable online as it was broadcast in Australia. The report sparked dismay and outrage around the world and in the blogosphere, and that is currently under investigation by the Pentagon.

If you have Realplayer, you can view it here.

Pattern of detention of journalists in Iraq

Reuters reports that the US military rejected the growing concern about the detention of Iraqi journalists working for major news agencies and organizations. The military refused to recognized the special nature of their work in reporting conflict as a common factor for confusion and their detention.

One Reuters cameraman has been held incommunicado for nearly two months, and is currently in detention in Abu Ghraib.


Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani, a 36-year-old freelance cameraman and photographer with Reuters, detained

The highest-profile detention of a filmmaker in Iraq involved Cyrus Kar, an Iranian-American documentarist, who was detained for months until threats by his family to sue the US government facilitated his swift release. His Iranian cameraman was not so lucky, and was released long after Kar.

CBS and Agence France Presse journalists were detained for many months as well.

Mashhadani, 36, has worked for Reuters for a year as a freelance television cameraman and photographer in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. U.S. officials say he can have no visitors, including his family or a lawyer, for 60 days.

Reuters has provided U.S. forces with footage by Mashhadani that shows scenes of conflict and gunmen operating in plain view of civilians. Nothing in his work has indicated activity incompatible with his status as an independent journalist.

"U.S. and Iraqi military forces routinely detain Iraqi journalists without charge or explanation, and some have been held for months," the CPJ [Committee to Protect Journalists] said.

'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."

American citizens held by US military in Iraq

The New York Times broke the amazing story of an American veteran held prisoner in Iraq by US forces. Cyrus Kar is a 44 year-old, Iranian-American filmmaker. He moved to the US when he was two years old, had served in the US Navy, and in May was in Iraq working on a film. According to various reports, the film was not even specifically about contemporary Iraq, it was an historical documentary about an ancient Persian king, Darius the Great.

Kar was captured shortly after he arrived in Baghdad in a taxi that allegedly had "several dozen" washing maching timers in the trunk, which are considered by the US "bomb making materials." Regardless of his potential guilt or innocence, he has not yet been able to meet with legal counsel, and he will be held during the "review process" that other Iraqis experience, which normally takes between 3 months and a year.

Apparently the other four people in custody holding American passports do not have the same background, they are more recently naturalized citizens of Iraq and Jordan. But the question remains, what rights to American citizens have when detained by their own military in a counter-insurgency situation in a foreign country? From the New York Times:

Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, who are representing Mr. Kar's relatives, said they would file a lawsuit on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Washington, accusing the government of holding Mr. Kar in violation of American and international laws and seeking his release through a writ of habeas corpus.

"Saddam Hussein has had more due process than Cyrus Kar," said Mark Rosenbaum, the lead lawyer in the case. "This is a detention policy that was drafted by Kafka."

Colonel Skinner, the Pentagon spokesman, said any American civilians detained as a possible threat to the allied forces would eventually go before a board of three American officers, who would assess their cases and decide what to do with them. He said he did not know whether there was any specific time period by which such a review would be done.

"We have absolutely no desire to hold anyone longer than is necessary," Colonel Skinner said. "But you can't be wrong, either. We are talking about life-or-death issues. You have to absolutely be thorough."

"Reality TV" detention in Iraq

The Christian Science Monitor printed a unique story about a new Iraqi "reality TV" series which features detenetion and interrogation of insurgents by Iraqi forces. The feared "Wolf Brigade," headed by commander Abdul Waleed, is the star of the prime-time series which is called "The Grip of Justice." First aired three months ago on the US-funded Al Iraqiya channel, the show, while wildly popular, is quite controversial, as it humiliates detainees and also reveals that their interrogations are conducted under the constant threat of force. Detainees have appeared "roughed up" with cuts on their faces, and they sometimes admit to very suspect acts, like drunkenness and sexual deviancy, which calls into question the morality and legality of the interrogations.

Supporters of the show, as well as the US military, say that the show has started to convince Iraqis that they can solve their security problems. Its critics, which include Iraqis, academics and human rights advocates, say it is against international human rights law, and it is fueling sectarian tensions between Shiites and Sunnis.

In one recent opening scene of "Terrorism in the Grip of Justice," viewers see a group of tired, scruffy men sitting on bare ground, squinting in the glare of floodlights and waiting to confess.

The camera then pans to Abul Waleed, the mustachioed, red-bereted commander of the elite Wolf Brigade police squad. Waleed is addressing about 30 terrorism suspects hauled in during Operation Lightning, a massive Iraqi-led sweep (now in its second week) aimed at rooting out car bombers and other insurgents in Baghdad.The most familiar part of the show are the confessions, which frequently link suspects to atrocities reported on the news. There is little doubt among Iraqis that the captives really are terrorists. Iraqi journalist Salam Jihad, who was detained by insurgents for several hours on a desert highway late last year, says he later saw one of his captors turn up on the show.

[...]

In a recent episode, three insurgents sat sullenly, confessing to their role in the kidnappings and murders of Shiite residents around Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. One suspect, named Muhsin, holds up a photo of one alleged victim.

"And how did you kill him?" the interrogator demands. "By shooting," the 22-year-old Muhsin says.

But because some of the suspects bear visible cuts and bruises on their faces, and confessing terrorists often also admit to drunkenness or sexual deviancy on the show, critics question the legitimacy of both the interrogation techniques and the confessions. The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights has filed complaints with the Interior Ministry and has asked the judicial council to review the show's legality.

"We think all detainees must go to court before any interview on TV," human rights official Saad Sultan says.