Release Bilal Hussein.

Check out the soon to be publicly launched Free Bilal website and add your name to the petition.

Bilal Hussein is an Iraqi Associated Press photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner who's been held in Camp Cropper jail on the outskirts of Baghdad for over a year without charge.

The only explanation for his arrest seems to be that pictures he'd taken of insurgent activity made him persona-non-grata with the occupation authorities.

In journalistic terms, how Hussein covering the insurgency is markedly different from mainstream 'embedded' photographers in Iraq covering the activities of one belligerent party, and not covering the activities of the other, escapes me at present.

Bilal Hussein is an Iraqi national, so it makes perfect sense for him to cover the activities of his fellow countrymen engaged in a guerilla conflict in his own land.

Whether I, or anyone else considers the Iraqi or Afghan insurgencies 'the enemy' is irrelevant. The role of journalism in war is supposed to be trying to cover both sides, not throwing your toys out of the pram when somebody tells you something you don't like.

That can be left to bloggogandists, or regimes like North Korea who expect the press to 'defend the Homeland' against whatever Big Bad Wolf is currently convenient, and keep its trap shut about everything else.

If there's something dodgy afoot, of course the authorities can simply charge Bilal Hussein.

But they haven't. For over a year.

Hello? Habeas Corpus anyone?

Bilal Hussein is not alone of course. In the current course of this disastrous (and undeclared) War on Terror, we've upheld our finest democratic principles and set a noble example by so far throwing over 14,000 people into jail, without charge, indefinitely and in secret.

(Thanks to Tomas Munita and Victor Caivano for the Free Bilal link)

Comments

[Gayle Hegland]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BILAL Press Release for Journalists

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Today over 1850 professional photographers and journalists from over 90 countries sent once again a petition to the U.S. Government demanding the immediate release of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein.

Bilal Hussein was detained by US Forces in Iraq on April 12, 2006, and has been held in prison ever since without charges.

This week, the US Military informed The Associated Press that they plan to seek a criminal complaint against Bilal before an Iraqi court on Nov. 29.

Despite the fact that the US Army had said to media outlets that they have “irrefutable evidence” that Bilal is “a terrorist media operative” who had “infiltrated the AP” they won’t say what the charges are or what evidence will be presented.

We can only wonder why after holding Bilal for 19 months without charges they will not reveal to the AP defense lawyer the accusation or the evidence they feel so strongly about.

Further, the US Army says that if the Iraqi justice system acquits him they could still throw Bilal back in jail.

A nearly 50-page report by former federal prosecutor Paul Gardephe on behalf of the AP and recently disclosed by the news agency concludes that there is no hard evidence for any of the allegations that the US Military has so far unofficially made about Bilal.

Considering the towering injustice committed against Bilal, we demand Bilal’s immediate release.

Among the signatories are Pulitzer Prize winners Al Diaz, David Leeson, Judy Walgren, Anja Niedringhaus, Alexander Zemlianichenko, Oded Balilty, Lucian Perkins, John Moore and Charles J. Hanley. Agency VII photographers Gary Knight and John Stanmeyer, Noor agency photographer Philip Blenkinsop and Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado have also signed the petition. The full list of signatures is available at www.freebilal.org

The petition, transcribed below, was first faxed on Oct. 12 to the State Department, the White House, the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Office of the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to the Department of Justice.

More on Bilal’s incarceration, and links to news coverage of efforts to free him, can be found at www.freebilal.org

We would appreciate it if you would consider reporting on Bilal Hussein’s situation.

Free Bilal Committee

Contact:

Annika Engvall

annika.engvall @worldpicturenews.com

+1 646-454-5953 / Cell +1 (347) 582-1165

Tomas Van Houtryve

tomas.van.houtryve @gmail.com

Cell +33 (678) 53 03 16

Petition:

“On April 12, 2006, Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was detained by the US Forces in Iraq and has been held in prison ever since.

No formal charges have been presented yet against Bilal, who is behind bars for having the courage to photograph Iraqi insurgents. Bilal was part of an AP team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for its coverage of the Iraq war.

Bilal’s arrest and imprisonment are a serious affront to the press as a whole, as well as to democratic traditions.

We, over 1850 professional photographers and journalists from over 90 countries, are seriously concerned for the life of Bilal Hussein, especially in view of the amount of time he has already been locked up and the prison conditions to which he is being subjected.

For these reasons we demand his immediate release.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned (see below)

Ps. The full list of signatures is available at www.freebilal.org/