Nbadan
05-05-2005, 12:53 PM
US and Iraqi forces are holding without charge nine Iraqi journalists working for international news organisations, on suspicion of aiding insurgents, the US military said.
The local journalists working for seven Western news organisations are currently detained with "some having been held for several months", said Colonel Steve Boylan, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq.
The US military is believed to be holding two AFP journalists, though US officers could only confirm the detention of one, recently transferred to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Reporter Ammar Daham Naef Khalaf was detained on April 11 by US soldiers who, according to his family, searched his home in Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad.
He was due to be transferred on April 26 to Abu Ghraib, where he can be held for up to 60 days incommunicado.
An AFP photographer, Fares Nawaf al-Issaywi, was detained on May 1 by Iraqi police while taking pictures in Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, before being handed over to US soldiers, his family said.
US forces have so far been unable to confirm they are holding him.
(more)
Alertnet.org (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/07f470b47fc6f41189154c8d86d0a36b.htm)
Big surprise here. More intimidation of anyone who is not "embedded" with our corporate media/military industrial machine. My guess is that these journalists did nothing wrong other than ask questions and investigate what is really happening to their country. However, since these journalists are brown people, no one here in the states will give a flying fart if they are tortured or even killed by our puppet government in Iraq. The only thing that matters is what happens to Americans, and only the ones wearing uniforms really count.
This is also what tinpot dictatorships, totalitarian regimes, and fascists do. It is all about controlling the message and quelling dissent. Who cares what rights and lives we trample on the way, right?
The local journalists working for seven Western news organisations are currently detained with "some having been held for several months", said Colonel Steve Boylan, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq.
The US military is believed to be holding two AFP journalists, though US officers could only confirm the detention of one, recently transferred to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Reporter Ammar Daham Naef Khalaf was detained on April 11 by US soldiers who, according to his family, searched his home in Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad.
He was due to be transferred on April 26 to Abu Ghraib, where he can be held for up to 60 days incommunicado.
An AFP photographer, Fares Nawaf al-Issaywi, was detained on May 1 by Iraqi police while taking pictures in Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, before being handed over to US soldiers, his family said.
US forces have so far been unable to confirm they are holding him.
(more)
Alertnet.org (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/07f470b47fc6f41189154c8d86d0a36b.htm)
Big surprise here. More intimidation of anyone who is not "embedded" with our corporate media/military industrial machine. My guess is that these journalists did nothing wrong other than ask questions and investigate what is really happening to their country. However, since these journalists are brown people, no one here in the states will give a flying fart if they are tortured or even killed by our puppet government in Iraq. The only thing that matters is what happens to Americans, and only the ones wearing uniforms really count.
This is also what tinpot dictatorships, totalitarian regimes, and fascists do. It is all about controlling the message and quelling dissent. Who cares what rights and lives we trample on the way, right?