November 22, 2007

For more than a year and a half now, an Iraq-based Associated Press photographer, Bilal Hussein, has been held by the U.S. military on vague charges of abetting the anti-American insurgency. Only this week have authorities released details about the case of Hussein (part of the 2005 AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize for photography), insisting that during a search of his apartment in Iraq last year, troops discovered, according to yesterday's New York Times, "explosive devices, insurgency propaganda and surveillance photographs of an installation for American-led forces." What's more, according to officials, Hussein "had made offers to provide false identity papers to an Iraqi sniper seeking to elude American custody [and] had taken photographs so synchronous with bomb attacks that it seemed that he had prior knowledge of the attacks."

As I cautionary tale, however, I urge readers to recall the case of "Yunis," an Iraqi journalist and cameraman working for various Western news agencies, who was detained and held by U.S. forces in 2005 on what proved to be absurd, trumped-up charges of plotting to assassinate British prime minister Tony Blair. Yunis, whose ordeal was chronicled in Michael Tucker's disturbing 2007 documentary, The Prisoner, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was taken by U.S. troops in a midnight dragnet. He sustained months of psychological and physical abuse at the hands of his American captors at Abu Ghraib, only to emerge as a key liaison there between the U.S. authorities and the prisoners, the vast majority of whom, like Yunis, turned out to be innocent civilians.

Tucker also wrote a moving account, for VanityFair.com, which I edited, describing the relationship between Yunis and Benjamin, one of the Abu Ghraib guards who became his friend at the camp. It is an inspiring tale that, especially at this time of year, has real resonance and a surprising degree of hope about the human condition.

With regard to the case of the AP's Bilal Hussein, please read news accounts of the American military's charges HERE -- and the response by the Associated Press HERE. Clearly, I have no idea whether Hussein is innocent or guilty, but before passing judgment, please remember the ill-fated Yunis, who, until recently, was still courageously plying his trade in Iraq.

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