Counterpunch publishes a piece "Letter from Guantanamo" by Andy Worthington (www.andyworthington.co.uk) a British historian, and the author of 'The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison' (published by Pluto Press in October 2007) dealing with an Al Jazeera cameraman detained in Guantanamo who has has written a letter dated 27 December 2007 from there.
The case of the cameraman again highlights the scandal of the way the Americans have simply detained people without any charges, trial or even an opportunity to confront their accusers of whatever it is said they are alleged to have done.
"Yesterday, the Associated Press reported on a letter from Guantánamo written by Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj. The letter was dated December 27, 2007, and had just been declassified by the Pentagon's censors. It was translated from the Arabic by his lawyers at the London-based legal charity Reprieve, which represents dozens of the Guantánamo detainees.
Mr. al-Haj was captured by Pakistani forces, acting on behalf of the United States, in December 2001, as he prepared to resume the Arabic TV station's coverage of Afghanistan with the rest of his team. As Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, explained after visiting him at Guantánamo last September, he was seized "because the US thought he had filmed Al-Jazeera's famous [Osama] bin Laden interview. As has so often been the case of late, the US was wrong (though name me a journalist who would turn down a bin Laden scoop)."
In Guantánamo, Mr. al-Haj has been subjected to an extraordinary array of vague allegations for which the administration has failed to provide any evidence. At his administrative review in September 2006, it was alleged that he had transported $220,000 to Azerbaijan "for what he was told was told was a humanitarian mission which instead was destined for Chechen rebels," and that, when he worked for a company called the Union Beverage Company, he "interacted with the individual in charge of distribution of juice in Azerbaijan," who "was under investigation for possible ties to terrorism."
Go on to read the complete piece here.
The case of the cameraman again highlights the scandal of the way the Americans have simply detained people without any charges, trial or even an opportunity to confront their accusers of whatever it is said they are alleged to have done.
"Yesterday, the Associated Press reported on a letter from Guantánamo written by Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj. The letter was dated December 27, 2007, and had just been declassified by the Pentagon's censors. It was translated from the Arabic by his lawyers at the London-based legal charity Reprieve, which represents dozens of the Guantánamo detainees.
Mr. al-Haj was captured by Pakistani forces, acting on behalf of the United States, in December 2001, as he prepared to resume the Arabic TV station's coverage of Afghanistan with the rest of his team. As Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, explained after visiting him at Guantánamo last September, he was seized "because the US thought he had filmed Al-Jazeera's famous [Osama] bin Laden interview. As has so often been the case of late, the US was wrong (though name me a journalist who would turn down a bin Laden scoop)."
In Guantánamo, Mr. al-Haj has been subjected to an extraordinary array of vague allegations for which the administration has failed to provide any evidence. At his administrative review in September 2006, it was alleged that he had transported $220,000 to Azerbaijan "for what he was told was told was a humanitarian mission which instead was destined for Chechen rebels," and that, when he worked for a company called the Union Beverage Company, he "interacted with the individual in charge of distribution of juice in Azerbaijan," who "was under investigation for possible ties to terrorism."
Go on to read the complete piece here.
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