The attempts by the U.S. military to bring charges against an Associated Press photographer is bringing condemnation from the press group. The U.S. military detained Bilal Hussein in Ramadi in April, 2006, alleging he had links to terrorist groups in Iraq. Hussein, a 36-year-old native of Fallujah, has been held in custody since then without formal charges announced.
“In the 19 months since he was picked up, Bilal has not been charged with any crime, although the military has sent out a flurry of ever-changing claims. Every claim we’ve checked out has proved to be false, overblown or microscopic in significance,” said AP President and CEO Tom Curley.
U.S. officials say Hussein gave false identification papers to a sniper who was trying to escape capture by U.S.-led forces, that he was in possession of materials used to manufacture bombs, and that his photographs were synchronized with bombs targeting coalition forces. An investigation by the AP found no evidence to support these claims.
Curley says his detention is a mockery of the democratic ideals lauded by the United States as the panacea for the Middle East. “This is a poor example — and not the first of its kind — of the way our government honors the democratic principles and values it says it wants to share with the Iraqi people,” Curley wrote in The Washington Post. “This affair makes a mockery of the democratic principles of justice and the rule of law that the United States says it is trying to help Iraq establish,” Curley wrote.
