BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi judicial committee has dismissed terrorism-related allegations against AP photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered him freed after nearly two years in U.S. military custody.
Link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijDA5bgxiHlTvS_r-SSjskS1Tq1wD8VUGIEO0
From a previous post:
Hussein was detained April 12, 2006 after marines entered his house in Ramadi to establish a temporary observation post and found bomb-making materials, insurgent propaganda and a surveillance photograph of a US military installation.
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/associated-press-terrorist-employee-finally-charged/
Of course, the AP had a conniption in spite of the evidence.
Associated Press president Tom Curley says his news organization does not buy the government’s argument that one of its photographers arrested in Iraq was working on behalf of the enemy, and he alleged the US is rounding up journalists in an attempt to control information.
Link: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/AP_President_chides_Bush_Admin_for_0319.html
Yeah, how dare we arrest a terrorist collaborator. The AP, being all about ‘control’, is pissed that one of its own employees got caught doing what the AP already does in most of its news articles, about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bilal Hussein was simply following AP policy of sympathic treatment toward the enemy.
Looks like the military won’t release the little asshole just yet:
The US military will continue to hold an Iraqi news photographer arrested as a “terrorist” until it reviews an Iraqi order granting him amnesty, a spokesman for detainee affairs said on Friday.
Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Marshall said the military was awaiting a report from the Iraqi authorities on the amnesty granted to Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein.Link: http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2008/04/11/us_holds_ap_photographer_in_iraq_despite_amnesty/afp/
Review the damned thing, tell the Iraqi court “no dice” and charge the son of a bitch. They let him go and he’ll pick right up where he left off; being an operative for terrorists.