Due Process, Bulldozed - New York Times
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September 25, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Due Process, Bulldozed
By
BOB HERBERT

Until five months ago, Bilal Hussein was part of a team of Associated Press
photographers that had won a Pulitzer Prize for photos documenting the
fighting
and carnage in Iraq.

Now he's a prisoner, having been seized by the U.S. government.

You might ask: What's he been charged with?

The answer: Nothing.

There was a flurry of interest last week in the case of Maher Arar, a terror
suspect who was shipped to Syria and tortured before it was learned that,
alas,
he was not a terrorist. Mr. Hussein got a little news coverage last week, as
well. People who still think there is a place in this world for fairness,
justice and due process are calling on the authorities to either charge him
with a crime or release him.

Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi hired by The A.P., was taken into custody by U.S.
forces in Ramadi last April 12. As in many similar cases, U.S. officials
have been
saying - without disclosing evidence to back up their comments - that he had
improper ties to the insurgents.

But neither the Americans nor the Iraqis have officially charged Mr. Hussein
with anything.

Scott Horton, a prominent New York lawyer called in by The A.P. to work on
the case, said: "The administration always starts with a broad-brush tarring
of these individuals. You'll have officials saying: 'Oh, they're bad dudes.
They're evil. We have evidence we can't show you that would demonstrate just
how terrible these people are.'

"Well, sometimes they do. But very frequently, alarmingly frequently, they
don't."

Mr. Hussein's case closely resembles that of Abdul Ameer Hussein, a
cameraman hired by CBS News who was wounded while covering an attack on an
American
convoy in Mosul on April 5, 2005. He was shot by a U.S. soldier, a sniper
who was more than 200 yards away.

Mr. Hussein was taken to a hospital. His camera and videotapes were seized.
And despite his CBS press credentials, which were checked out and found to
be
legitimate, he was arrested by U.S. authorities and imprisoned. Much of his
time over the course of the next year was spent in solitary confinement at
the Abu Ghraib prison, where he was subjected to coercive interrogation and
other indignities.

For what?

American officials were telling reporters, without offering any evidence,
that Mr. Hussein had been collaborating with insurgents. He hadn't been. It
turned
out he was completely innocent. In fact, he was a kind of timid guy who was
less than thrilled about having a job that required him to shoot combat
footage.

This is a spooky time in history. It's one thing for tyrannical regimes like
the old Soviet Union and Communist China to bulldoze the very idea of human
rights and human decency by engaging in such atrocities as detention without
trial, torture and other forms of state terror. It's something else
completely
when the United States, the greatest symbol of liberty that the world has
ever known, begins to head down that hellish road.

Abdul Ameer Hussein ultimately was able to escape the clutches of the
authorities because of the persistent legal effort pushed by CBS News on his
behalf.
Scott Horton was part of that effort. A year after he was taken into
custody, Mr. Hussein, manacled and wearing an orange jumpsuit, was walked
into a Baghdad
courtroom for a trial. It was quickly determined that the case against him
was ludicrous.

"There was absolutely no evidence against this guy," said Mr. Horton. "Even
the attorney general of Iraq said there was no basis for proceeding against
him."

The case was dismissed.

Several Iraqi journalists working for international news organizations have
been held without charge by American and Iraqi forces. The absence of
concrete
evidence in so many of the cases is disturbing, to say the least.

"I am absolutely convinced," said Mr. Horton, "that the ton of bricks fell
on these two guys - Bilal Hussein and Abdul Ameer Hussein - because they
were
working as professional journalists. They were the eyes of the world,
covering things that the Pentagon doesn't want people in America to see."

A legitimate news organization can't help but experience a shudder at
hearing that one of its employees may have been collaborating with the
enemy. It's
a chilling, devastating allegation. To make that charge recklessly is
reprehensible.

Posted by Miriam V.