09/27/06

Lawmaker cites AP photographer's detention in floor debate

By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Democratic congresswoman on Wednesday cited the case of an Iraqi Associated Press photographer imprisoned by the U.S. military during debate on a prisoner treatment bill that she considers too harsh.

In a House speech, Rep. Louise Slaughter referred to Bilal Hussein, who has been detained in Iraq for more than five months.

"He was accused of aiding and abetting the insurgency, but he has yet to be charged with any crime," said Slaughter, D-N.Y. She noted that the AP has demanded that Hussein either be released or charged so that he can be turned over to the Iraqi court system for trial.

Slaughter also wrote Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asking that he "immediately resolve" Hussein's case.

"Imagine if another nation held an American citizen without charging him of a crime?" she asked. "What are we supposed to say about our country today?"

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., responded to Slaughter's statements by saying he was "proud that we extend protections to our adversaries that they do not extend to us, and I'm proud that in the few cases where there are transgressions those are vigorously prosecuted and exposed by this country."

Hussein was arrested in Ramadi on April 12. The military said he was in the company of two alleged insurgents in an apartment where there were bomb-making materials and that he is being held indefinitely for "imperative reasons of security" under U.N. resolutions, because of "strong ties" to insurgents that go beyond the role of a journalist.

AP executives went public on Sept. 10 with news about Hussein's detention on Sept. 10 after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations. They said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find inappropriate contact with insurgents and that U.N. resolutions do not allow for indefinite detention. Any evidence against him, they said, should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system or else he should be released.

Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained as suspected security threats by the U.S. military worldwide; some 13,000 of them are in Iraq. Few are charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

Slaughter said his case shows a new bill defining how such detainees may be treated -- and not mistreated -- is too broad.

Under this bill, Slaughter said, "Bilal could be declared an enemy combatant, sent to an American detention facility and kept there indefinitely. ... His permanent detention would never have to be defended in a court of law."

The bill, which the House passed by a 253-168 vote later Wednesday, would establish a military court system to prosecute suspected terrorists. The measure is a response to the Supreme Court's ruling in June that said Congress' blessing was necessary.

The bill would grant defendants more legal rights than they have had. But it would eliminate rights usually granted in civilian and military courts.

Slaughter, in her letter to Rumsfeld after the vote, also asked that he provide personal assurances that Hussein is being held in safe and humane conditions.

A Pentagon spokesman has said Hussein's case has been reviewed three times by U.S. and Iraqi detention authorities. On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said: "He is being detained because he is believed to be a security threat to coalition forces and the Iraqi people. His case has been looked at and reviewed several times by both U.S. and Iraqi officials. Each review has resulted in the recommendation of continued detention."

But the AP's associate general counsel, Dave Tomlin, said the AP had been told of only one review, and that took place without any representation from Hussein or his representatives.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has said it was alarmed by Hussein's lengthy detention, and Reporters Without Borders has called for the U.S. military to charge Hussein or release him.

Hussein, a native of Fallujah, was hired by AP there in 2004 and has worked as a photographer there and in Ramadi, both centers of the Iraq insurgency.

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 its own effort to determine whether Hussein had gotten too close to the insurgency, the AP 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.

Of those, AP executives said, only 37 photos show insurgents or people who could be insurgents, and only four show the wreckage of still-burning U.S. military vehicles. The military in Iraq has often detained journalists who arrive quickly at scenes of violence, accusing them of getting notice from insurgents.