U.S. Jails Iraqi Photographer a Year With No Charge: Commentary

[jakeXT]

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Each time I report on a journalist imprisoned for committing journalism, a few readers call me a hypocrite for not turning the spotlight on my own country. Here is one case nobody should ignore.

Ibrahim Jassam, 31, is an Iraqi freelance photographer. Since Sept. 2, 2008, when U.S. soldiers seized him at his home near Baghdad, he has been held without charge in American military prisons. He’s currently at Camp Bucca, in the southern part of the country, according to Lt. Col. Patricia Johnson, a U.S. Marine Corps spokeswoman in Iraq. Jassam is a security threat, Johnson said, “as the result of his activity with an insurgent organization.”

No details of that alleged activity were offered. Journalists often make contact with opposition forces in the course of their work. Last November, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq ruled that Jassam is not a security threat and asked the Americans to release him. The American response has been to politely ignore the court and keep the photographer in prison as his first anniversary in jail approaches.

At the time of his detainment, Jassam was working for Thomson Reuters news service. He’s the last journalist being held by the U.S. in Iraq, though I doubt that matters much to the three generations of his family who, according to an account in the Los Angeles Times, were roused at 1:30 a.m. on that September night, when soldiers with attack dogs broke down the door to their home and demanded that they turn him over.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aSSpsUBElPaU

[Vattel]

1. fuck the "seems-suspicious-to-us" standard

maybe this guy is guilty, but the military kidnaps people regularly based on mere suspicion. That is disgusting.