ASSOCIATED PRESS photojournalist Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, is being held by American forces in Iraq. He's accused of being an insurgent, although exact charges are unknown. The US military has not disclosed details of his April, 2006 arrest or the reasons behind it."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," AP president Tom Curley wrote. "Every claim we've checked out has proved to be false, overblown or microscopic in significance."
Hussein was on the AP team - along with Jim MacMillan - that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for their war coverage.
The AP reports that U.S. officials have asserted Hussein offered to provide false identification to a sniper seeking to evade U.S.-led forces, that he possessed bomb-making equipment, and that he took photographs that were synchronized with insurgent blasts. The AP has found no corroboration of the accusations.
"We believe Bilal's crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see," Curley wrote.
By the way, yesterday's guest, Jim MacMillan, will be teaching a course in Journalism and Psychological Trauma next semester. Check out the course description here.
4 comments:
Agreed. Of all the disturbing images and depressing nature of Jim's presentation, the moment that stuck in my mind as a sort of disturbingness-climax was Jim's response to the "Aren't there U.S. laws protecting photographers?" question. Also, "Terrorists Win Pulitzer Prize" stuck out in my mind.
Did anyone else read all that literature about the Japanese internment camps instituted by the U.S. government in 8th grade? Remember how weird McCarthyism sounded in history class in junior high? Because it makes no sense to label someone without evidence? Remember how we learn about history so that we don't repeat the bad parts?
- Caitlyn Conefry
I couldn't even believe this when Jim was talking about it. I've definitely lost a lot of respect for the military and the government for how they've handled this. It's absolutely ridiculous.
If you look at the petition at www.freebilal.org, most of the signers are journalists or media of some sort, but I think this issue extends way beyond those in the profession. American citizens should know about this (I think most people probably don't), because it's not only affecting the media, it should be affecting politics and opinion here.
I think this also raises the question of whether they suspect him simply because he's Iraqi ... if they believed an American or British journalist had taken the picture, would they have detained that person the same way? This should never have happened in the first place, but I hope that isn't the case. I have some serious reservations about whoever's decision it was to detain him on no basis whatsoever now.
What I really want to know is why I heard about Jill Carroll every five minutes when she was being held captive in Iraq by Iraqi forces, but this is pretty much the first I've heard about Bilal Hussein being held by U.S. forces?
Not to minimize Carroll's situation at all, but this is just as horrible, so why aren't all the news outlets lending it the coverage they gave to Carroll's case? Because it might make the U.S. look bad?
If this is what the United States has come down to, then this country deserves to look bad, and someone out there with the power to do it needs to help the AP do something about this.
Just to hear Jim talking about the apparent hopelessness of Bilal's situation, and for him to have ended it with "...And I'm just scared to death" absolutely broke my heart.
It frustrates me that the people who seem to care the most can do the least.
This was written Thursday in the Photo District News website:
"We believe the real reason for Mr. Hussein’s detention and incarceration for 19 months without charges is that he produced images of conflict in Anbar Province which the military did not want the citizens of Iraq and the United States to see," Curley's letter says.
This makes me believe that the US government has incarcerated Bilal simply because he is Iraqi. All he did was his job as an AP journalist. And even so, if he produced the images the military didnt want anyone to see, that is no reason to detain him in an Iraqi prison for over a year. He is getting unfair treatment and it is so frustrating hearing that he is only now, 19 months later, going to be able to defend his case in an Iraqi court.
read more of the article here:
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003679001
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