Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley is highly skeptical of the U.S. military in its treatment of Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi native who has been imprisoned for 19 months under suspicion of "links to insurgents."In his Washington Post Op/Ed Railroading A Journalist In Iraq, Curley says that, despite Hussein never being charged with a crime, the military has kept him detained with claims, some trumped-up and others false; Curley believes that the real reason Hussein is being detained is because he was "taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see."
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"What is new this week," continues Tomlin, "is that after months of stonewalling, they propose on less than two weeks notice to drag him into a court room."
One incident Tomlin recalls suggests that Hussein was being set up. After Hussein was accused of being photographed with bomb-making equipment, evidence suggested that he was forced to stand for the photograph.
The US Military has conducted themselves in a singularly dishonorable fashion. They are not suited to wearing loincloths, much less a United States uniform.
The purpose of a speedy, public trial is so that a man may be tried on the merits of evidence --evidence being facts that reflect reality, not staged photos. "Yup. Here I am. Just conveniently standing next to this bomb-making equipment while a guy takes my picture."
That the man has not received a trial indicates to me that there is no evidence. And if the trial must be secret, with loosened standards for evidence, this tells me that the military's case is a sham.
This is the new SOP, apparently: When hut dwellers have kicked your asses, lock up journalists.
You have lost the war, you have lost the nation, and you have lost your honor.
Remove the American flag from your sleeve. Your association with the decent has become an unseemly presumption.
