[Peace-discuss] US holds AP photographer in Iraq 5 mos

[Ricky Baldwin]

Man, those Iraqis must be glad we liberated them!
-Ricky

US holds AP photographer in Iraq 5 mos 

By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer 9-17-06 

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.

"Journalists have always had relationships with people
that others might find unsavory," she said. "We're not
in this to choose sides, we're to report what's going
on from all sides."
AP executives in New York and Baghdad have sought to
persuade U.S. officials to provide additional
information about allegations against Hussein and to
have his case transferred to the Iraqi criminal
justice system. The AP contacted military leaders in
Iraq and the Pentagon, and later the U.S. ambassador
to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
The AP has worked quietly until now, believing that
would be the best approach. But with the U.S. military
giving no indication it would change its stance, the
news cooperative has decided to make public Hussein's
imprisonment, hoping the spotlight will bring
attention to his case and that of thousands of others
now held in Iraq, Curley said.

One of Hussein's photos was part of a package of 20
photographs that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking
news photography last year. His contribution was an
image of four insurgents in Fallujah firing a mortar
and small arms during the U.S.-led offensive in the
city in November 2004.

In what several AP editors described as a typical path
for locally hired staff in the midst of a conflict,
Hussein, a shopkeeper who sold cell phones and
computers in Fallujah, was hired in the city as a
general helper because of his local knowledge.

As the situation in Fallujah eroded in 2004, he
expressed a desire to become a photographer. Hussein
was given training and camera equipment and hired in
September of that year as a freelancer, paid on a
per-picture basis, according to Santiago Lyon, AP's
director of photography. A month later, he was put on
a monthly retainer.
During the U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah in November
2004, he stayed on after his family fled. "He had good
access. He was able to photograph not only the results
of the attacks on Fallujah, he was also able to
photograph members of the insurgency on occasion,"
Lyon said. "That was very difficult to achieve at that
time."

After fleeing later in the offensive, leaving his
camera behind in the rush to escape, Hussein arrived
in Baghdad, where the AP gave him a new camera. He
then went to work in Ramadi which, like Fallujah, has
been a center of insurgent violence. 

In its own effort to determine whether Hussein had
gotten too close the insurgency, the AP has reviewed
his work record, interviewed senior photo editors who
worked on his images and examined all 420 photographs
in the news cooperative's archives that were taken by
Hussein, Lyon said. 

The military in Iraq has frequently detained
journalists who arrive quickly at scenes of violence,
accusing them of getting advance notice from
insurgents, Lyon said. But "that's just good
journalism. Getting to the event quickly is something
that characterizes good journalism anywhere in the
world. It does not indicate prior knowledge," he said.

Out of Hussein's body of work, only 37 photos show
insurgents or people who could be insurgents, Lyon
said. "The vast majority of the 420 images show the
aftermath or the results of the conflict — blown up
houses, wounded people, dead people, street scenes,"
he said. 

Only four photos show the wreckage of still-burning
U.S. military vehicles. 

"Do we know absolutely everything about him, and what
he did before he joined us? No. Are we satisfied that
what he did since he joined us was appropriate for the
level of work we expected from him? Yes," Lyon said.
"When we reviewed the work he submitted to us, we
found it appropriate to what we'd asked him to do." 

The AP does not knowingly hire combatants or anyone
who is part of a story, company executives said. But
hiring competent local staff in combat areas is vital
to the news service, because often only local people
can pick their way around the streets with a
reasonable degree of safety. 

"We want people who are not part of a story. Sometimes
it is a judgment call. If someone seems to be
thuggish, or like a fighter, you certainly wouldn't
hire them," Daniszewski said. After they are hired,
their work is checked carefully for signs of bias. 
Lyon said every image from local photographers is
always "thoroughly checked and vetted" by experienced
editors. "In every case where there have been images
of insurgents, questions have been asked about
circumstances under which the image was taken, and
what the image shows," he said. 

Executives said it's not uncommon for AP news people
to be picked up by coalition forces and detained for
hours, days or occasionally weeks, but never this
long. Several hundred journalists in Iraq have been
detained, some briefly and some for several weeks,
according to Scott Horton, a New York-based lawyer
hired by the AP to work on Hussein's case. 

Horton also worked on behalf of an Iraqi cameraman
employed by CBS, Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, who was
detained for one year before his case was sent to an
Iraqi court on charges of insurgent activity. He was
acquitted for lack of evidence. 

AP officials emphasized the military has not provided
the company concrete evidence of its claims against
Bilal Hussein, or provided him a chance to offer a
defense. 

"He's a Sunni Arab from a tribe in that area. I'm sure
he does know some nasty people. But is he a
participant in the insurgency? I don't think that's
been proven," Daniszewski said. 

Information provided to the AP by the military to
support the continued detention hasn't withstood
scrutiny, when it could be checked, Daniszewski said. 
For example, he said, the AP had been told that
Hussein was involved with the kidnapping of two Arab
journalists in Ramadi. 

But those journalists, tracked down by the AP, said
Hussein had helped them after they were released by
their captors without money or a vehicle in a
dangerous part of Ramadi. After a journalist
acquaintance put them in touch with Hussein, the
photographer picked them up, gave them shelter and
helped get them out of town, they said. 

The journalists said they had never been contacted by
multinational forces for their account. 

Horton said the military has provided contradictory
accounts of whether Hussein himself was a U.S. target
last April or if he was caught up in a broader sweep. 
The military said bomb-making materials were found in
the apartment where Hussein was captured but it never
detailed what those materials were. The military said
he tested positive for traces of explosives. Horton
said that was virtually guaranteed for anyone on the
streets of Ramadi at that time. 

Hussein has been a frequent target of conservative
critics on the Internet, who raised questions about
his images months before the military detained him.
One blogger and author, Michelle Malkin, wrote about
Hussein's detention on the day of his arrest, saying
she'd been tipped by a military source. 

Carroll said the role of journalists can be
misconstrued and make them a target of critics. But
that criticism is misplaced, she said. 

"How can you know what a conflict is like if you're
only with one side of the combatants?" she said.
"Journalism doesn't work if we don't report and
photograph all sides."

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News
report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed without the prior written authority of
The Associated Press. 



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