Bilal Hussein is the AP photojournalist in Iraq

Bilal Hussein is the AP photojournalist in Iraq who was detained by the U.S. military in April, 2006 and has been imprisoned ever since without charges of any kind

It is so vital to realize the direct connection between Hussein's war journalism and the lawless detention of him by the U.S. military for almost two years. Hussein's photographs helped earn AP the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for its war coverage in Iraq

The photographs taken by Hussein, and published by AP, demonstrated that things were anything but calm in Anbar.

Even worse, when Bilal Hussein was first detained, nobody had any idea what happened to him

Six separate Iraqi journalists working for AP have been murdered during the war, more than any other war in AP's 160 year history.

Hussein is but one of 24,000 individuals being held by the U.S. military without charges in Iraq. But there are obviously unique dangers when the U.S. military arrests journalists in a war zone and then holds them for almost two years with no charges. And Hussein is by no means the only journalist so held by our government.

The travesty of the Bilal Hussein case is manifold. While we preach to the world how we are bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq, we are arresting their journalists and holding them indefinitely with no charges. If Bilal Hussein were really guilty of working in tandem with insurgents, he could have and should have been tried long ago.

Instead, our military copies the practices of Saddam Hussein by detaining and imprisoning people with no charges, thereby intimidating Iraqis out of reporting on what they see
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/20/hussein/index.html