After over a year and a half of incarceration, this puke is finally charged with aiding and abetting terrorists:
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US military has filed a formal complaint with an Iraqi criminal court accusing a detained, award-winning Associated Press photographer of being a “terrorist media operative,” the Pentagon said Monday.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the military made the complaint about Bilal Hussein, who has been held for more than 19 months without charges in US military custody, to Iraq’s Central Criminal Court.
“We believe Bilal Hussein was a terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP,” he said. “MNF-I possesses convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to security and stability as a link to insurgent activity.”
Morrell said an investigative hearing into the case by the court is scheduled to begin on or after November 28.
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.
Morrell said Hussein, who was part of an AP photo team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, had previously aroused suspicion because he was often at the scene insurgent attacks as they occurred.
He said other evidence, which he would not describe, came to light after his detention “that makes it clear that Mr. Hussein is a terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP.”
Under Iraq’s legal system, an investigative judge reviews the evidence and decides whether it is sufficient to press charges. The case then goes before a panel of three judges for trial.
The US military’s role in the trial would be as a “complaining witness,” Morrell said.
Of course the AP is in a snit:
“While we are hopeful that there could be some resolution to Bilal Hussein’s long detention, we have grave concerns that his rights under the law continue to be ignored and even abused,” AP President and CEO Tom Curley said in a statement.
“The steps the U.S. military is now taking continue to deny Bilal his right to due process and, in turn, may deny him a chance at a fair trial.
“The treatment of Bilal represents a miscarriage of the very justice and rule of law that the United States is claiming to help Iraq achieve,” the AP statement said.
“At this point, we believe the correct recourse is the immediate release of Bilal.”
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hrXLdLkkrNX6TjsQ-Kp_qzn109wQ
Yeah, the military should release Hussein so he can pick up where he left off in the jihad department.
HOOAH! Who says bloggers can’t make an impact against Islamic thugs?:
From ‘Rusty Shackleford’ of the JAWA Report:
A reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, informs me that The Jawa Report had something to do with Bilal Hussein’s prosecution. Apparently Bilal Hussein had been picked up in a raid in which he wasn’t the target. That target was a known al Qaeda operative, Hamid Hamad Motib, and bomb making materials were found in the house.
Hussein was arrested and taken to Abu Ghraib, but no one knew who he was. Just another low-level insurgent, I’m guessing.
He had been sitting in Abu Ghraib for a month, and nobody realized that he was the AP photog who had snapped dozens of staged photos with al Qaeda fighters. The reader was in Abu Ghraib as an investigator working on an unrelated case when he saw Bilal Hussein and recognized him from the extensive coverage we had on The Jawa Report.
He reported it up the chain of command and within days Bilal Hussein was transferred to a different facility, NCIS got involved, and eventually a criminal investigation opened on him.
He ends the e-mail with:
THANKS to you guys…you REALLY ARE making an impact on the [the war on terror] … you can claim credit.
……The Jawa Report, sticking it to al Qaeda propagandists from the comfort of our living rooms. Any one wish to complain about the “chickenhawk” bloggers now?
It’s stories like these that make it all worth it!
Thanks to the Jawa Report, Hussein was ferreted out sooner than later.
I’m suprised that more of these terrorist collaborators haven’t been outed. Hussein’s American ‘counterparts’ working for the New York Times and the Washington Post could use some scrutiny as well….