[NYTr] US War on the Press: Iraqi Photographer Accused of Aiding Rebels

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The New York Times - Nov 21, 2007 (posted 11/20/07)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/world/middleeast/21photographer.html

U.S. Accuses Iraqi Photographer of Aiding Rebels

By GRAHAM BOWLEY

The American military is sending an Iraqi photographer for The
Associated Press it accuses of aiding the insurgency into Iraq’s
criminal justice system, according to American authorities and The A.P.
The photographer, Bilal Hussein, was part of an 11-member team that won
a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography in 2005. He has been
detained without charge since April 2006.

His lawyer, Paul Gardephe, said the American authorities had not
disclosed any specific charges to be brought against Mr. Hussein.
However, he said that in e-mail messages and other correspondence,
military officials had indicated some allegations they might level
against him, including that the military discovered bomb making
equipment and explosives residue at his apartment in Ramadi, that he
had made offers to provide false identity papers to a sniper seeking to
elude American custody, and that he had taken photographs so
synchronous with bomb attacks that it seemed he had prior knowledge of
the attacks.

A spokesman for the Pentagon in Washington was not immediately
available for comment. But the Pentagon press secretary, Geoff Morrell,
was quoted by The A.P. on Monday as saying that “new evidence has come
to light” about Mr. Hussein.

The military has “convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal
Hussein is a threat to stability and security in Iraq as a link to
insurgent activity,” Mr. Morrell said, according to The A.P., and he
called Mr. Hussein “a terrorist operative who infiltrated The A.P.”

Mr. Gardephe said the news organization’s own separate investigations
into Mr. Hussein’s work, which included interviews with Mr. Hussein,
36, and examination of the 400 photographs he produced for The A.P.,
had found no evidence supporting the military’s allegations.

Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of The A.P., said in an interview:
“We believe that Bilal Hussein has been singled out because of his work
as a journalist. While we are glad that there is finally some
development that may lead to the end of his imprisonment without
charges, we are concerned still about the lack of specificity against
him. We have long said that Bilal Hussein was nothing more than a
reputable A.P. journalist doing his job, and our position about that
has not changed.”

Mr. Hussein owned a small electrical shop in Falluja, where he lived,
when he was recommended to The A.P. and started working as a local
fixer and guide before becoming a photojournalist. He covered the
American invasion of Falluja in 2004 before being reassigned to Ramadi.
The A.P. employs 200 people in Iraq, including reporters, photographers
and television reporters, the vast majority Iraqi.

Mr. Hussein’s work focused mainly on the effects of the war on the
Iraqi civilian population, said Mr. Gardephe.

He was arrested in April 2006, when soldiers sought entry to his
apartment in Ramadi during what they described as a routine search
after an explosion on a nearby street. Military officials said they had
found photographs of insurgents, which might be construed as
propaganda, Mr. Gardephe said. He said Mr. Hussein was also accused of
being involved in the kidnapping of other journalists.

Mr. Gardephe said that many part-time journalists working for foreign
news services were arrested at the time in Anbar Province, but while
the others were released after four to five months Mr. Hussein has
remained in detention. He has been kept at Camp Crocker near Baghdad
airport.

“They will not tell me what allegations they are planning to allege,”
said Mr. Gardephe. “Nor do I know what evidence they have.”

The American authorities said they intended to file the charges later
this month. Mr. Hussein’s case would be heard before an investigative
judge who would determine what evidence to consider and what witnesses
to call, and whether the case should then pass to trial before a panel
of three judges.

Mr. Gardephe said the case was almost without precedent. The only other
journalist to be transferred to the Iraqi central criminal court, he
said, is a CBS cameraman, Abdul Amir, who was arrested by the American
military in March 2005 and held for a year. He was transferred to the
Iraqi court in March 2006, and was acquitted that month, Mr. Gardephe
said.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times

                             ***

AP via MSNBC - Nov 19, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21889120/

U.S. military taking photographer to court

Will not disclose what evidence is going to be presented in Iraqi
courtroom 

The Associated Press

NEW YORK - The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi
court against an award-winning Associated Press photographer but is
refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented.

An AP attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the
U.S. military plans a "sham of due process." The journalist, Bilal
Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19
months.

A public affairs officer notified the AP on Sunday that the military
intends to submit a written complaint against Hussein that would bring
the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29. Under Iraqi
codes, an investigative magistrate will decide whether there are
grounds to try Hussein, 36, who was seized in the western Iraqi city of
Ramadi on April 12, 2006.

Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said the defense for
Hussein is being forced to work "totally in the dark."

The military has not yet defined the specific charges against Hussein.
Previously, the military has pointed to a range of suspicions that
attempt to link him to insurgent activity.

The AP rejects all the allegations and contends it has been blocked by
the military from mounting a wide-ranging defense for Hussein, who was
part of the AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo team in 2005.

Soon after Hussein was taken into custody, the AP appealed to the U.S.
military to either release him or bring the case to trial — saying
there was no evidence to support his detention. However, Tomlin said
that the military is now attempting to build a case based on "stale"
evidence and testimony that has been discredited. He also noted that
the U.S. military investigators who initially handled the case have
left the country.

The AP says various accusations have been floated unofficially against
Hussein and then apparently been withdrawn with little explanation.

Tomlin said the AP has faced chronic difficulties in meeting Hussein at
the Camp Cropper detention facility in Baghdad and its own intensive
investigations of the case — conducted by a former federal prosecutor,
Paul Gardephe — have found no support for allegations that he was
anything other than a working journalist in a war zone.

'Grave concerns' about his rights

"While we are hopeful that there could be some resolution to Bilal
Hussein's long detention, we have grave concerns that his rights under
the law continue to be ignored and even abused," said AP President and
CEO Tom Curley.

"The steps the U.S. military is now taking continue to deny Bilal his
right to due process and, in turn, may deny him a chance at a fair
trial. The treatment of Bilal represents a miscarriage of the very
justice and rule of law that the United States is claiming to help Iraq
achieve. At this point, we believe the correct recourse is the
immediate release of Bilal."

Calls for his freedom have been backed by groups such as the Committee
to Protect Journalists.

Tomlin said it remains unclear what accusations, evidence and possible
witnesses will be presented by military prosecutors in Baghdad.

"They are telling us nothing ... We are operating totally in the dark,"
said Tomlin, who added that the military's unfair handling of the case
is "playing with a man's future and maybe his life."

Although it's unclear what specific allegations may be presented
against Hussein, convictions linked to aiding militants in Iraq could
bring the death penalty, said Tomlin.

U.S. military officials in Iraq did not immediately respond to AP
questions about what precise accusations are planned against Hussein.

Photographed aftermath of attacks

Previously, the military has outlined a host of possible lines of
investigation, including claims that Hussein offered to provide false
identification to a sniper seeking to evade U.S.-led forces and that
Hussein took photographs that were synchronized with insurgent blasts.

The AP inquiry found no support for either of those claims. The bulk of
the photographs Hussein provided the AP were not about insurgent
activity; he detailed both the aftermath of attacks and the daily lives
of Iraqis in the war zone. There was no evidence that any images were
coordinated with the insurgents or showed the instant of an attack.

Gardephe, now a New York-based attorney, said the AP has offered
evidence to counter the allegations so far raised by the military. But,
he noted, that it's possible the military could introduce new charges
at the hearing that could include classified material.

"This makes it impossible to put together a defense," said Gardephe,
who is leading the defense team and plans to arrive in Baghdad next
week. "At the moment, it looks like we can do little more than show
up ... and try to put together a defense during the proceedings."

One option, he said, is to contend that the Pentagon's handling of
Hussein violated Iraqi legal tenets brought in by Washington after the
fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Among the possible challenges: AP
claims that Hussein was interrogated at Camp Cropper this year without
legal counsel.

Hussein is one of the highest-profile Iraqi journalists in U.S. custody.

In April 2006 — just days before Hussein was detained — an Iraqi
cameraman working for CBS News was acquitted of insurgent activity.
Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein was held for about a year after being
detained while filming the aftermath of a bombing in the northern city
of Mosul.

Tomlin, however, said that freedom for Bilal Hussein, who is not
related to the cameraman working for CBS, isn't guaranteed even if the
judge rejects the eventual U.S. charges. The military can indefinitely
hold suspects considered security risks in Iraq.

"Even if he comes out the other side with an acquittal — as we
certainly hope and trust that he will — there is not guarantee that he
won't go right back into detention as a security risk."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.