Bilal Hussein case update: Military to bring charges, AP complains; Update: “MNF-I possesses convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to security and stability as a link to insurgent activity”
***
Update 11:50pm Eastern: Via the AFP, the US military reveals some details…
The US military has filed a formal complaint with an Iraqi criminal court accusing a detained, award-winning Associated Press photographer of being a “terrorist media operative,” the Pentagon said Monday.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the military made the complaint about Bilal Hussein, who has been held for more than 19 months without charges in US military custody, to Iraq’s Central Criminal Court.
“We believe Bilal Hussein was a terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP,” he said. “MNF-I possesses convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to security and stability as a link to insurgent activity.”
Morrell said an investigative hearing into the case by the court is scheduled to begin on or after November 28.
Hussein was detained April 12, 2006 after marines entered his house in Ramadi to establish a temporary observation post and found bomb-making materials, insurgent propaganda and a surveillance photograph of a US military installation.
Morrell said Hussein, who was part of an AP photo team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, had previously aroused suspicion because he was often at the scene insurgent attacks as they occurred.
He said other evidence, which he would not describe, came to light after his detention “that makes it clear that Mr. Hussein is a terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP.”
***
In April 2006, I broke news about our military’s detention of Associated Press stringer Bilal Hussein–whom sources in Iraq told me was captured by American forces in a building in Ramadi, Iraq, with a cache of weapons–and continued to follow the case here, here, here, here, here, here, and here since he was taken into custody. The AP has waged all-out war on the military, demanding that the troops charge or release Hussein. Well, now, the military is about to bring criminal charges against Hussein…and the AP is still, of course, crying foul:
The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented.
An AP attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the U.S. military plans a “sham of due process.” The journalist, Bilal Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months.
A public affairs officer notified the AP on Sunday that the military intends to submit a written complaint against Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29. Under Iraqi codes, an investigative magistrate will decide whether there are grounds to try Hussein, 36, who was seized in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on April 12, 2006.
Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said the defense for Hussein is being forced to work “totally in the dark.”
The military has not yet defined the specific charges against Hussein. Previously, the military has pointed to a range of suspicions that attempt to link him to insurgent activity.
The AP rejects all the allegations and contends it has been blocked by the military from mounting a wide-ranging defense for Hussein, who was part of the AP’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo team in 2005.
Soon after Hussein was taken into custody, the AP appealed to the U.S. military to either release him or bring the case to trial — saying there was no evidence to support his detention. However, Tomlin said that the military is now attempting to build a case based on “stale” evidence and testimony that has been discredited. He also noted that the U.S. military investigators who initially handled the case have left the country.
Faced with the prospect that the full breadth of Hussein’s suspicious activities might actually come to public light, the AP’s Tom Curley changes his tune:
“While we are hopeful that there could be some resolution to Bilal Hussein’s long detention, we have grave concerns that his rights under the law continue to be ignored and even abused,” said AP President and CEO Tom Curley.
“The steps the U.S. military is now taking continue to deny Bilal his right to due process and, in turn, may deny him a chance at a fair trial. The treatment of Bilal represents a miscarriage of the very justice and rule of law that the United States is claiming to help Iraq achieve. At this point, we believe the correct recourse is the immediate release of Bilal.”
In other words, only the crusading AP should be trusted as the judge and jury in this case–national security be damned.
Here’s a refresher on the photos and stories Bilal Hussein was involved in taking/producing before his detention:
A typical example of photography from the “insurgents’” perspective by Bilal Hussein/APAnd another up-close-and-personal snapshot of a day in the life of the “insurgents:”
AP/Bilal HusseinMany more graphic photos of Hussein’s work here, including this chilling photo in the middle of the Ramadi desert taken by Hussein as triumphant terrorists posed with the body of just-executed hostage Italian national Salvatore Santoro on Dec. 15, 2004:
Insurgent propaganda photo by AP/Bilal HusseinIt’s clear the photographer wasn’t fearful at all for his own life. The Yahoo! archive of Hussein’s photos for AP is here. And plenty more here.
In November 2004, AP published a glowing profile of Bilal Hussein that was–surprise–critical of the American forces’ assault on Fallujah.
Rusty at The Jawa Report (hat tip - OTB) updated the “continuing saga of insurgent propaganda” earlier this week and pointed to an excellent investigation of phony MSM war photography published by the National Journal’s Neil Munro, who featured Bilal Hussein’s questionable work prominently:
Thanks to digital technology, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most photographed in history. Photographers with digital cameras have provided, almost instantaneously, an enormous flood of accurate, dramatic, and even shocking images to people around the world. But the daily downloads of news photos include some that are staged, fake, or so lacking in context as to be meaningless, despite the Western media’s best efforts to separate the factual from the fictional….
The photo editors for Time and The New York Times’ Web site declined to comment. Other publications printed images of damage from the missile strike that seem entirely accurate. For example, Newsweek and The Washington Times published wide-angle photos of locals standing beside houses that had obviously been severely damaged. The New York Times print edition published the same wide-angle photo on January 18…..
The problem sharpens when no Western reporter is on the scene, but a photographer, usually an Iraqi stringer, is. Photo editors, or even local Western bureau chiefs, have trouble judging the veracity of the images that come from such an event. Last October, for example, The Washington Post printed a striking image of four caskets, purportedly containing dead women and children, and a line of mourning men on a flat desert plain outside the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The photo, provided by the Associated Press, accompanied an article that began this way:
“A U.S. fighter jet bombed a crowd gathered around a burned Humvee on the edge of a provincial capital in western Iraq, killing 25 people, including 18 children, hospital officials and family members said Monday. The military said the Sunday raid targeted insurgents planting a bomb for new attacks.
“In all, residents and hospital workers said, 39 civilians and at least 13 armed insurgents were killed in a day of U.S. airstrikes in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a Sunni Arab region with a heavy insurgent presence.
“The U.S. military said it killed a total of 70 insurgents in Sunday’s airstrikes and, in a statement, said it knew of no civilian deaths.” ….
The funeral photograph was taken by Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi stringer working for the Associated Press. AP officials declined to make Hussein available for an interview, and National Journal was unable to contact him directly in Iraq….
A series of Hussein’s photographs illustrate another dilemma for photo editors — whether to publish images that may have been created for the photographer. Last September 17, in Ramadi, Hussein took pictures after a battle at a dusty intersection. At least one U.S. armored vehicle had been damaged and towed away, leaving behind its 40-foot dull-gray metal track tread. Hussein’s photographs showed the locals piling debris and auto tires onto the tread, and then celebrating as they lit a fire. Without the fire, smoke, and added debris, the photo would have presented a pretty uninteresting image of people looking at a leftover tank tread. With the smoke, fire, and debris, the image seemed to convey that a major battle had just taken place.
Weeks later, USA Today published a similar Hussein photograph from a different incident in Ramadi, which featured celebrating Sunnis, burning car tires, and a tank tread pulled over on its side.
Lyon said that AP bars photographers from asking people to change a scene, but that a crowd’s spontaneous decision to change a scene in front of a cameraman presents a different situation. “You have this [dilemma] every day all around the world,” he said. “There’s nothing new there.”
Bilal Hussein’s day in court should be illuminating, to say the least. No wonder the AP now objects.
***
Rusty’s not surprised by the AP’s reaction.
Bryan Preston has a suggestion: “Out of maintaining the thinnest veneer of objectivity, the AP ought to recuse itself from reporting on the Hussein case at all.”
Karl at Protein Wisdom revisits “The Big Picture(s).”
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- snapped shot
- WHERE IS BILAL HUSSEIN? « Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group
- The Baltimore Reporter
- US Plans Case Against AP Photographer Bilal Hussein - Labeled Terrorist Operative : Homeland Security National Terror Alert
- Iraqi Government to Persecute ‘Journalist’ « The Van Der Galiën Gazette
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- Don Surber » Blog Archive » Pham Xuan An Hussein
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- National Security State: The Case of AP Photographer in Iraq « Roadkill Refugee
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- links for 2007-11-21
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- Michelle Malkin » The trial of Bilal Hussein
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Not much of a surprise that the AP is still going on about this. They are on the enemy’s side and working consistently within our country to provide vital information to anyone who would commit terrorist acts against American soldiers or Citizens.
I still wonder if Al Qaeda and Osama’s terrorists were/are funded by the MSM somehow. They are, after all, in the business of “making” headlines.
Interestingly Al Jazeera has been pushing this case as hard as AP News.
In fact on their English website in the lower corner is a link dedicated to Hussien called “Prisoner 345″
Yet not one word is up there about today’s developement
Opps sorry that is a different prisoner
Look at the bigger picture, of course. The Associated Press is not an entity onto itself. It is a cooperative owned by those newspapers, radio, and television stations that contribute stories, and use stories written by AP employees.
In other words…if Bilal Hussein is found guilty…essentially every major media outlet that is part of the cooperative takes the hit. Ten years ago…big deal. But, there is a medium not under the influence of the MSM and the story will be LOUD & ECHOING.
That would be the blog.
MM, i forgot about the “with terrorists” AP logo
addition…improvementtruly snortworthy!
I remembering seeing photos of terrorists with rocket-launchers and weapons pointed at US troops and was absolutely outraged. These photos, courtesy of AP, were fodder for terrorist sympathizers and being run in our US dailies. I blasted AP editors and execs alike on more than one occasion over these unquestionable acts of sedition.
I agree with AP. I am shocked and outraged that an upstanding citizen like Mr Hussein apparently wasn’t Mirandized, given immediate access to AP’s finest lawyers and . . . What? He isn’t an American citizen? You mean he is an Iraqi who has provided staged propaganda photos to the anti-Amercan press including Al Jezeera and AP and was caught by a military operation with a cache of terrorist weapons?
/sarc off
Okay, what part of detaining enemy combatants in a war doesn’t AP understand?
Sorry, that should have been what part of detaining
enemy combatantsterrorists in a war doesn’t AP understand?The MSM is in direct support of ANYTHING anti american from the ACLU to any Islamofascist organization, or anyone connected to them (i.e. unindicted co-conspirators). The MSM circulation is rapidly dwindling because of the alternative resources from Rush to Michelle to even Hannity. The left is really a fringe and not at all aligned with mainstream America, and never has been. Its the squeeky wheel that gets the oil, and those folke really need to be jerked into reality. Sorry, its just too frustrating listening to “Those People”.
Was he the one that also took pictures of the Nepalese men who were executed? They were saying he must have been there when it happend but he said he came there after?
What did his supervisors at the AP know and when did they know it?
While the AP is waxing poetic about the US Constitution, let’s hope they look up the definition for treason as well — and then they should look in a mirror. What a bunch of unethical cry babies. “Waaaa, we want our terrorist back! Waaaa. It’s not fair! Waaaa. He was doing such a good job feeding us propaganda. Waaaaaa.”
Tell it to the judge you treasonous P’sOS.
Rational Thought might be onto something here: maybe they’re worried about their own day in court…
Looking at the photos above, and putting myself in the shoes of an AP editor, I’d have to be asking,
(1) “How is it that this guy is so ‘buddy-buddy’ with the jihadi-types that they let him get this up close and personal with them?”
And,
(2) “Does that raise at least the possibility - if not the likelihood - that he’s working with them, and not just taking their pictures?”
Leading to,
(3) “And given 1 and 2 above, shouldn’t I be highly cautious if not outright skeptical about the news value vs. enemy propaganda value of what he’s providing?”
…Well, you’d think that the real-life AP editors would be asking these questions. That they didn’t ask - or came up with the wrong answers if they did - is just another example of how today’s American “journalism” is little removed from its Soviet-style alter-egos like Pravda and Isvestia: it’s what they don’t report that’s really significant.
If he were really guilty, wouldn’t he be already working for the NY Times or Newsweek?
AP equals Anti patriotism.
LOL Aloha #14, Isn’t that “NewsWEAK?”
I’m wondering if Iraqi jurisprudence allows for plea bargains. If so, we may have only seen the tip of AP’s iceberg of embarrassment.
Very well said and a lovely, but desperate hope.
Thank you, Michelle, for exceptional coverage of this luckiest AP photographer in world history…Hussein, who “provided” the images that reality could not. Your beginning post on Hussein was one of the first stories that led me to your site in the first place. Can’t get rid of me (as a reader, I respectfully submit) now.
Regulus…
You raise some interesting questions and I think your analysis is right on although I seriously doubt that the questions were ever raised at all. My guess is they didn’t want to know and the best way maintain separation is to not ask.
If I am correct, then the US Military should consider criminal or civil prosecution of this guys supervisors as well.
Maybe we could get the crew from Olympia to block the road leading to this guys cell. Heck, he could even photograph the protest from his cell.
Too bad this clown didn’t get a closeup of a suicide bomber.
NewsWEAK.. Love it.
The “Associated With Terrorist Press” continue to self destruct losing what little is left of their credibility as a source for news. Their close association with stringers working for the enemy and pushing their propaganda did a lot to lose my trust. They continue to stand by this enemy agent only making them look like the traitors they are.
I never could nor still cannot grasp the nexus of the AP and other MSM outlets. Seems the AP has become it’s own independent life force of negative propaganda and is accountable to no one.
Let’s put this in some current event context - shall we? If a Lebanese illegal can infiltrate the FBI and CIA … I don’t think it is too big of a leap to at least entertain the fact that a photojournalist with terrorist ties can get past the Middle East desk at AP.
Just my dos centavos.
Detained since April 2006…
And what exactly is wrong with that? Over a year under detention with no charges! Either charge him or release him…. simple request, surely?
Hey Sausage,
As was said above… Hussein isn’t a US citizen, he’s not being tried in the US, he’s not being tried under US laws, and he’s an enemy combatant. Therefore, there’s no requirement that the US military do any of what the AP is “demanding”. Surely that’s easy enough to understand.
Jim C
I kinda look forward to sausage’s inaneties. I am always awed by his and his cohorts complete failure to grasp the reality of the real world.
I hope this turns out to be Midnight Express Part 2 except he doesn’t escape from prison.
If you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows!!
If the AP continue’s to fight for this “insurgent” they will fall even further than they already have.
MSM doing the work that real American’s wouldn’t dream of doing.
I was very angry when I first saw this guy’s photos and thought the juxtaposition and arrangements were very inflammatory and provocative, especially since so many American media outlets saw fit to run them. All of them got an email or phone call with my rebuke. I hope they water board this guy!
The AP has a very selective short term memory in that they give foreigners rights only guareented to Americans and yet deny these same rights to us and our troops defending this great country.
Too bad they’re not fighting for the rights of former border agents Ramos and Campeon.
GSP
Everybody “Live Free or Die Hard” is being released today. I am on my way to the video store SMILE Why is it only postive American Movies on the War on Terror are popular? I heard that redacted, made like 26,000.00 nation wide. Of course they will release it overseas, to all the America Haters.
Sausage - if I recall from your early posts - you are originally from Europe? Great Briton if I recall correctly - forgive me if I am in error.
My point being this: If this were 1944, would you be so gung-ho to provide attorneys and ‘criminal’ rights to those nazi sympathizers caught on the battlefields who were held in Allied POW camps?
These enemy combatants of today are no different than the POWs that were held in WWII. No trials - just imprisonment to keep them from re-joining the enemy ( which some who have been released have done ).
The only difference in this war is that the other side isn’t holding prisoners - they are executing them. No POW camps from the other side - only sharp blades or a shot to the head.
But you and others on the left want to condemn the U.S. for its treatment of our prisoners?
Amazing.
God Bless John McClane.
Yippee Ki-Yay.
AP, MSM what a suprise! nuf said
You might not like this guy. There may be much no to like, but his “trial” is a farce that will be incredibly damaging to America’s long term interests.
The “evidence” against Bilal Hussein is so secret that it won’t be introduced at the trial. Only the judge and the prosecutor will know what it is.
The next time you complain about show trials in Iran or China they will be able to point to Bilal Hussein and say we are no better.
America is not an ethnic group, it’s built on principles: freedom, justice, equality, restrained government, checks&balances, etc. Take those away and you don’t have America.
And you know this how? And what is more damaging? A trial which, potentially, may not be as “open” as some would like due to national or operational security reasons? Or allowing an enemy agent to imbed with our press and disseminate information to the other side and provide propaganda which is damaging to our troops and Country?
You assume three things that you have no right to assume. First, that the evidence against him is phony or trumped up. Why else would you put quotes around the word? Did you screen the evidence and find it lacking? Second, that the judge and prosecutor are biased, and incapable of treating this guy fairly. How do you know this? Oh, right. They are associated with the American military and the American military can never be trusted. Third, you assume that enemy combatants can be handled as if they were American citizens who just committed a burglary, or were caught DUI on a Friday night. Read them their rights, court appointed lawyer, 5th ammendment, and all that. It can’t be done and it shouldn’t be done.
China and the Soviet Union used show trials to punish political opposition, and terrorize their own citizens. Those they captured in war never got a show trial, or any other type of trial. Not even the kind you can put quotation marks around. They got a bullet in the head, and an unmarked grave, if they were lucky.
Pefectly put lgm - America is supposed to be the shining light in the world for, as you say -
Such a shame…
I won’t be losing too much sleep over this, I know MEEEAAANN Feebs. You lie down with Dogs, you wake up with Fleas.
As far as Iran and China, I really don’t think they are in a position, with or without Hussein, to be pointing fingers at anyone.
Wood chippers and rape rooms do not a reputable accuser make.
jrlingreenbay (#36) asks the right question:
The answer is: a bad trial is more damaging to America. Even the Nazis got better trials at Nuremberg. We proved to the world that we could give Nazis fair trials and treat Nazi prisoners decently.
If we can’t give this guy a fair trial, we have to let him go. Revoke his clearance and deny him access, but let him go. It’s by far the lesser of the two evils.
LGM - You’re inserting your own pre-conceived bias into the equation - which is not unexpected.
My scenario didn’t say the trial wouldn’t be fair or “bad”. You assume it will be so.
I only stated that it may be less “open” due to security issues of this country or our military operations.
Surely you can understand that there may be issues which should not be out for open discussion or review from the public as they may be classified in nature?
Or don’t you believe that?
That doesn’t mean that the trial would be unfair.
The photo of the guy with the mortar tube is so hilarious. Trying to fire a mortar sans baseplate, bipod or aiming gear is worthy of extreme ridicule in the world of men and arms. What a buffoon.
And don’t get me started on the guy in the white disco pants behind him!
KCK - I think disco pants should have been outlawed in 1979!
Why there would be any dispute regarding the likelihood of reporters working for the other side in a dual capacity is beyond me. AP has people working all over the world and it is extremely unlikely that they would check them out. All the AP is interested in is news - and they could care less who got it for them. For AP to squawk is really silly of them.
People who respect us, will respect us. People who don’t…no matter how many “fairness” factors you give in to ain’t gonna make a damn bit of difference.
I understand if your point of view is the “fair” trial, rights, whatever factor. Like I said, I am not losing any sleep over this…but please, don’t sit here and tell us that us doing things any other way than what is in the best intrest of our country is going to win the hearts of anyone.
It is a ridiculous argument.
Brings new meaning to the phrase:
“CAN’T TOUCH THIS - HAMMERTIME!”
If it was video, not still photography, you’d probably see him shuffling from left-to right- to left across the street.
Remind me, were the Nuremberg trials held during the D-Day landing? Or were they held after the German military had been crushed, and the Nazi political structure dismantled? Apples. Oranges.
Our soldiers are still on the field of battle. Do you have so little regard for them (except as political props) that you can’t understand the difference?
Really. You’ve seen the future? You know exactly how fair this trial will be before it occurs?
Is there anything we do that doesn’t hurt our interests? I mean, really. We can’t take a leak without you people bitching and moaning about how we’re ruining our good name.
[claps three times, slowly]
Fine words. The disconnect I have comes when I consider who wrote them.
There are people in our society - perhaps best exemplified by the ACLU, the NLG and their like-minded fellow travelers - who think that by manipulating our laws, beliefs and principles to create a perverse result they’re upholding the same; that by creating miscarriages of justice, they’re somehow “for” justice.
I don’t believe it for one moment.
Two millenia ago Cicero pegged lgm when he idenified the most pernicious enemy as the one who holds out as a concerned citizen, yet who all the while seeks to undermine and destroy society from within with its own principles and belief systems.
Somehow I find it easy to visualize people like sausage and lgm unsuccessfully struggling to hide a display of glee if Bilal Hussein were to get a “trial” that ended up the same way as OJ Simpson’s did.
And somehow I find it easier to believe that the sense of smug satisfaction would come not from any notion of “equality, justice, fairness” etc., but rather from the sense that America just had a stick poked in its eye.
And lgm and sausage think he should be released because an Iraqi trial of a non-US citizen might be embarrassing? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! How foolish!
#33
I just got my copy, “Live Free or Die Hard” makin popcorn…Bruce Willis finishing, where John Wayne left off GRIN.
My understanding of the Geneva Convention is that this said reporter was not in uniform (like the enemy combatants). Therefore he falls under a certain label. SPY. Under the convention spies can and should be shot once captured.
He has no real rights as on the battlefield spies are a low form of life that is not looked kindly upon.
The A.P. should be very thankful we have politicians running this war. If we let the military run things like it should be. The war would be over, these terrorists and spies would be dead and we would be going about our lives.
Forget trials! We need a TAKE NO PRISONERS policy. If we had a policy like that then the gitmo debate would go away and all the liberal whining about terrorist “rights” would stop. As far as I am concerned the only RIGHT terrorist have is to DIE AND GO TO HELL!!!