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solarbirdSo, where are we this morning?
The US military is holding what appears to be a kangaroo-court trial for Bilal Hussein, the Pulitzer Prize winning news photographer they arrested and detained without trial or charge some time ago, in Iraq.
Harper's Magazine has some rare coverage, rare in part because the US military imposed a gag order - though they have been leaking commentary against him to friendly blogs. (This allegation is not unique to this article, and the use of "supportive" media in this general manner has been confirmed by the White House in the very recent past.) Harper's reports that in this show trial, Mr. Hussein can't cross-examine witnesses, is barred from legal council in court (in direct violation of Iraqi law), his communications with his lawyer are monitored personally by US military, five US military attys are acting as Iraqi prosecutor (in direct violation of Iraqi law), and, oh yeah, the judge said before the trial started that he planned to convict.
I have written many letters to dictatorial governments in protests of identical actions before. Similarly to many of these cases, they're actively using their propaganda wing to propagate a PR campaign against the photographer, and working to suppress other coverage. Please understand that if this material is correct - as after these long six years I no longer find even remotely unlikely - this is a bog-standard show trial, the sort put on against political opponents of any type in any common dictatorship.
And that's where we are today.
The US military is holding what appears to be a kangaroo-court trial for Bilal Hussein, the Pulitzer Prize winning news photographer they arrested and detained without trial or charge some time ago, in Iraq.
Harper's Magazine has some rare coverage, rare in part because the US military imposed a gag order - though they have been leaking commentary against him to friendly blogs. (This allegation is not unique to this article, and the use of "supportive" media in this general manner has been confirmed by the White House in the very recent past.) Harper's reports that in this show trial, Mr. Hussein can't cross-examine witnesses, is barred from legal council in court (in direct violation of Iraqi law), his communications with his lawyer are monitored personally by US military, five US military attys are acting as Iraqi prosecutor (in direct violation of Iraqi law), and, oh yeah, the judge said before the trial started that he planned to convict.
I have written many letters to dictatorial governments in protests of identical actions before. Similarly to many of these cases, they're actively using their propaganda wing to propagate a PR campaign against the photographer, and working to suppress other coverage. Please understand that if this material is correct - as after these long six years I no longer find even remotely unlikely - this is a bog-standard show trial, the sort put on against political opponents of any type in any common dictatorship.
And that's where we are today.
