US Holding Iraqi Journalists Without Charges

[Nbadan]

US and Iraqi forces are holding without charge nine Iraqi journalists working for international news organisations, on su ion 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

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?

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Are you a ing idiot? It says in the very first line of the story they are being held for suspected assistance of insurgence.

Damn you're an idiot.

My guess is that these journalists did nothing wrong other than ask questions and investigate what is really happening to their country.

How can you say that when the first line of the story is...

US and Iraqi forces are holding without charge nine Iraqi journalists working for international news organisations, on su ion of aiding insurgents, the US military said.

Does it hurt when you try to think?

[Nbadan]

su ion of aiding insurgents

You must have convieniently missed the part were the reporters haven't been charged with anything. I'm sure by 'aiding the insurgents' what they were probably doing is telling the truth.

[The Ressurrected One]

You must have convieniently missed the part were the reporters haven't been charged with anything. I'm sure by 'aiding the insurgents' what they were probably doing is telling the truth.

They aren't in the US and it's US and Iraqi forces... Go complain over there.

[Clandestino]

dan has no idea who they are, but as long as the u.s. is involved dan is against them.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Dan,

Here in the US police sometimes hold an individual, get them to cooperate in the investigation, then give them immunity/reduced sentence.

Did you ever stop to think we're doing the same with some people over there?

You amaze me though, you're the first person I've ever encountered that appears to be having their period 24/7/365.

[The Ressurrected One]

"...what they were probably doing is telling the truth."

If this were true and they were merely telling Nbadan's version of the "truth" then there'd be a of a lot more than those dirtbag "journalists" in U.S. and Iraqi custody.