U.S. holds AP photographer in Iraq 5 months

[PhilTLL]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060918/ap_on_re_mi_ea/photographer_detained


The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing.

Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.
Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.

"We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable," said Tom Curley, AP's president and chief executive officer. "We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure."

Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide — 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

In Hussein's case, the military has not provided any concrete evidence to back up the vague allegations they have raised about him, Curley and other AP executives said.
The military said Hussein was captured with two insurgents, including Hamid Hamad Motib, an alleged leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. "He has close relationships with persons known to be responsible for kidnappings, smuggling, improvised explosive device (IED) attacks and other attacks on coalition forces," according to a May 7 e-mail from U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jack Gardner, who oversees all coalition detainees in Iraq.

"The information available establishes that he has relationships with insurgents and is afforded access to insurgent activities outside the normal scope afforded to journalists conducting legitimate activities," Gardner wrote to AP International Editor John Daniszewski.

Hussein proclaims his innocence, according to his Iraqi lawyer, Badie Arief Izzat, and believes he has been unfairly targeted because his photos from Ramadi and Fallujah were deemed unwelcome by the coalition forces.

That Hussein was captured at the same time as insurgents doesn't make him one of them, said Kathleen Carroll, AP's executive editor.

[StoopTroup]

He sounds like a keeper to me.

[Okla-homey]

He sounds like a keeper to me.

I say we pump him for all the info he's worth and then cut his head off on TV. Who's with me?

When are these war-haters gonna learn there is no flippin' right of habeas corpus applied to enemy persons taken on the flippin' battlefield? You capture an enemy bad guy and put him in the klink. As long as the detaining power can feed, shelter and clothe the guy, he stays there until the cessation of hostilities. Per the most recent Supreme Court decision this summer, if he's charged with some crime or claims he's not a bad guy, the trial is accomplished by us, on our timing, according to our own court martial rules and the jury is composed of guys like me. No right to civilian counsel or access to civilian courts.

Imagine, if it worked the way these AP weenies want it to, every guy we ever held in a PW camp would be waltzing into civilian court claiming he wasn't really an enemy troop and that he was drafted or made to fight or taken at the wrong place at the wrong time and was only in the neighborhood looking for an open 7-11...or some other such drivel. :D

[olevetonahill]

I say we pump him for all the info he's worth and then cut his head off on TV. Who's with me?

When are these war-haters gonna learn there is no flippin' right of habeas corpus applied to enemy persons taken on the flippin' battlefield? You capture an enemy bad guy and put him in the klink. As long as the detaining power can feed, shelter and clothe the guy, he stays there until the cessation of hostilities. Per the most recent Supreme Court decision this summer, if he's charged with some crime or claims he's not a bad guy, the trial is accomplished by us, on our timing, according to our own court martial rules and the jury is composed of guys like me. No right to civilian counsel or access to civilian courts.

Imagine, if it worked the way these AP weenies want it to, every guy we ever held in a PW camp would be waltzing into civilian court claiming he wasn't really an enemy troop and that he was drafted or made to fight or taken at the wrong place at the wrong time and was only in the neighborhood looking for an open 7-11...or some other such drivel. :D

ya really want all the info he has ?
500 ft amsl in a huey ;)
say, talk or jump :eek:
nuff said

[picasso]

belch.

[Okla-homey]

ya really want all the info he has ?
500 ft amsl in a huey ;)
say, talk or jump :eek:
nuff said

I loved that scene in Scarface.;)

BTW, how about Sean Connery's character drilling that corpse in the melon to make the other hood give up the bookkeepers whereabouts in "The Untouchables?"

[OklahomaTuba]

I'm surprised the ACLU hasn't jumped all over this one.

Is Ramsey Clark still defending Saddam??? Where is he when you need the man???

[Harry Beanbag]

I guess we could just execute all 14,000 of them like many other countries and our current enemies would have. Shrug.

[PhilTLL]

I guess we could just execute all 14,000 of them like many other countries and our current enemies would have. Shrug.

"Not being as bad as the other guys" does not equal "Living up to our status as the greatest, most idealistic, rule-of-just-law country in the world". I expect better because we say we are better.

[Harry Beanbag]

"Not being as bad as the other guys" does not equal "Living up to our status as the greatest, most idealistic, rule-of-just-law country in the world". I expect better because we say we are better.


Take a trip out to old Fort Reno and tell that to the graves of German and Italian POWs that died there while in captivity during WWII.

It's nothing new and is the way we have always done it during wartime. This isn't a bass tourney, catch and release isn't a practical procedure to deal with prisoners of war, war criminals, etc..

[PhilTLL]

Take a trip out to old Fort Reno and tell that to the graves of German and Italian POWs that died there while in captivity during WWII.

It's nothing new and is the way we have always done it during wartime. This isn't a bass tourney, catch and release isn't a practical procedure to deal with prisoners of war, war criminals, etc..

Historical basis still doesn't make it acceptable - and the examples you cite are among those that convinced the world to adopt doctrines to prevent such injustices, anyway. "Catch and release" is neither being advocated nor occurring (catch and hold is more like it), but regardless, I don't think "catch, accuse, try, and convict" is too much to ask.

[Harry Beanbag]

Historical basis still doesn't make it acceptable - and the examples you cite are among those that convinced the world to adopt doctrines to prevent such injustices, anyway. "Catch and release" is neither being advocated nor occurring (catch and hold is more like it), but regardless, I don't think "catch, accuse, try, and convict" is too much to ask.


Bull****. The Geneva Convention was supposed to prevent things like the Bataan death march, Malmedy, and the all kinds of wrong that happened on the eastern front. I don't think they were all that concerned with POWs being housed in military barracks getting three square meals a day and all the exercise they wanted in the United States.

Prisoners of War are held until the war is over, then they are repatriated to their home country. I know that occasionally there are prisoner exchanges between the involved parties, but since the other side barbarically murders all of our POWs, I doubt that will be happening very often in this war.

[PhilTLL]

Bull****. The Geneva Convention was supposed to prevent things like the Bataan death march, Malmedy, and the all kinds of wrong that happened on the eastern front. I don't think they were all that concerned with POWs being housed in military barracks getting three square meals a day and all the exercise they wanted in the United States.

And evidently still managed to die in captivity?


Prisoners of War are held until the war is over, then they are repatriated to their home country. I know that occasionally there are prisoner exchanges between the involved parties, but since the other side barbarically murders all of our POWs, I doubt that will be happening very often in this war.

Most of the people concerned are being held in their home country, so they can't really be repatriated. To whom would they be? Their terror brigades? And when? Without those guidelines that applied to POWs in more conventional wars, our only recourse is to try and convict them like criminals, and probably that should be done by the Iraqi government we fought to establish.

Just as an aside, pragmatically, I could really give a **** less about most of these people and whatever happens to them. I'm just debating for debating's sake, as I enjoy it.

[StoopTroup]

Mel Gibson - Payback

This little piggie....

[Harry Beanbag]

And evidently still managed to die in captivity?

People die every day for all kinds of reasons. Could have been disease, suicide, battle wounds, fighting amongst themselves, who knows.




Most of the people concerned are being held in their home country, so they can't really be repatriated. To whom would they be? Their terror brigades? And when? Without those guidelines that applied to POWs in more conventional wars, our only recourse is to try and convict them like criminals, and probably that should be done by the Iraqi government we fought to establish.

You've convinced me. Since they're too dangerous to release, maybe we should just hold on to them until the Iraqi government is able to try them, or kill them, whatever. Isn't that what we're doing? :confused:



Just as an aside, pragmatically, I could really give a **** less about most of these people and whatever happens to them. I'm just debating for debating's sake, as I enjoy it.

Okay.

[PhilTLL]

You've convinced me. Since they're too dangerous to release, maybe we should just hold on to them until the Iraqi government is able to try them, or kill them, whatever. Isn't that what we're doing? :confused: .

We hold people in this country all the time who are at least already aware of what they're charged with. You don't have to try them all tomorrow, but is letting them know why they're held so difficult?

[KABOOKIE]

We hold people in this country all the time who are at least already aware of what they're charged with. You don't have to try them all tomorrow, but is letting them know why they're held so difficult?



Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions.

I thought he knew.....

[OklahomaTuba]

Seems this fine gent has a very nice history of colluding with the terrorists.

http://sirhumphreys.blogspot.com/2005/10/ap-and-reuters-photographer-bilal.html

They should keep him locked down for a very long long time.

[OklahomaTuba]

Now lookie what those evil neo-con fascist kool-aid drinking brainwashed storm troopers are doing, accusing this fine, innocent and brave photographer of having strong insurgent ties. Just more of Bushhitler's war against the brown people and the media no doubt.


The Pentagon said on Monday that an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press and held by the U.S. military since April was considered a security threat with "strong ties to known insurgents."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there was sufficient evidence to justify the continued detention of Bilal Hussein, 35, who AP said was taken into U.S. military custody on April 12 in the Iraqi city of Ramadi and held since without charge.

He declined to elaborate on what that evidence was.

"All indications that I have received are that Hussein's detainment indicates that he has strong ties to known insurgents, and that he was doing things, involved in activities that were well outside the scope of what you would expect a journalist to be doing in that country," he said.

In three separate "independent objective reviews," Whitman told reporters, "it was determined that Hussein was a security threat and recommended his continued detention."
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-09-18T215041Z_01_N18315891_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-PHOTOGRAPHER-AP.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

No doubt he will be tortured at gitmo and then killed, like all the other brave dissenters have.