After Six Years, Al-Jazeera Cameraman Freed From Guantanamo

On Thursday May 1st, Al-Jazeera reporter Sami al-Haj was released after six and a half years at Guantanamo. Al-Hajj, arrived in Sudan early on Friday, was carried off a US air force jet on a stretcher and immediately taken to a hospital. His brother, Asim al-Hajj, said that he did not recognise the cameraman because he looked like a man in his 80s. Al-Hajj told reporters at the hospital that "rats are treated with more humanity", than the inmates at Guantanamo, whose "human dignity [is] violated".

Al-Haj, 38, was detained in December 2001 by Pakistani forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border while covering the U.S. led-offensive to unseat the Taliban. He was later transported by the U.S. military to Guantanamo Bay in June 2002. He began a hunger strike in January 2007 to protest his continued incarceration. In a letter from 2007, Al-Haj reported that throughout the 130 interrogations to which he has been subjected in Guantánamo, “the interrogations were all about al-Jazeera and alleged relations between al-Jazeera and al-Qaeda". he also reported that teh US military tried to induce him to work as a spy for American intelligence in return for US citizenship for him and for his family.

"Sami al-Haj is the latest journalist to be freed by the U.S. military after spending years behind bars on the basis of secret evidence and without formal charge or trial," says Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon. "We are delighted that Sami al-Haj can finally be reunited with his family and friends. But his detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas."

Al-Haj, who is Sudanese, is the second journalist to be freed by the U.S. military in the last month after being held for a prolonged period without due process. On April 16, Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was released from U.S. custody in Iraq, ending a two-year ordeal in which he fended off unsubstantiated accusations from the U.S. military that he had collaborated with Iraqi insurgents. All told, 10 journalists have been held for extended periods by the U.S. military and then released without charge.

The U.S. military continues to hold Jawed Ahmad, a journalist for Canada's CTV, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Ahmad has been held without charge since October 26, 2007, according to CTV.

Read More | Prisoner345.net | Sami al-Hajj Hits Out At US Captors | imc_audio.gifDemocracy Now | Committee to Protect Journalists | Reporters Without Borders | imc_video.gifAl Jazeera You Tube Report On Al-Hajj release

Sami al-Haj…Guantanamo Nightmare | Previous Coverage From Democracy Now: Sami Al-Haj and Bilal Hussein | Brother of Jailed Cameraman Says Imprisonment Part of U.S. “Political Operation Against Al Jazeera” | Al Jazeera Director Demands More Information on Secret Memo | Al Jazeera in the Crosshairs

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Article from San Francisco Bay Area IMC
2008
05/4
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