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Military: AP Photog Linked to Insurgents

New evidence surfaces implicating journalist held since 2006

By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 20, 2007 6:18 AM CST
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(Newser) – The US military says it has evidence that an Iraqi photographer who works for AP is connected with the anti-American insurgency, CNN reports. Bilal Hussein Zaidon has been in custody since April 2006 and will face trial in the Iraqi court system. The Pentagon did not specify the charges but said "additional evidence had come to light that the man was a media operative who had infiltrated the Associated Press."

AP chief Tom Curley called for the government to release Hussein, saying his rights to due process and a fair trial are being "ignored and even abused." Hussein, who earned a Pulitzer Prize with the AP in 2005, roused suspicion for arriving at terrorist attack sites so quickly that he was thought to have advance warning. Authorities found bomb parts and propaganda in his house.

An Iraqi family is searched near a U.S. checkpoint in Ramadi, Iraq in this Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 file photo taken by Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein. The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against Hussein, who has already been imprisoned without...
An Iraqi family is searched near a U.S. checkpoint in Ramadi, Iraq in this Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 file photo taken by Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein. The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal...   (Associated Press)
This is an April 8, 2005 file photo of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein. The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case against him in an Iraqi court but is refusing to disclose the evidence or accusations. Hussein has been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months....
This is an April 8, 2005 file photo of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein. The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case against him in an Iraqi court but is refusing to disclose the evidence...   (Associated Press)
Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, center, flanked by National Press Club president, Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, left, and Joel Campagna, Committee to Protect Journalist, addresses the Committee to Protect Journalist panel discussion about the cases of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein and Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, both of whom...
Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, center, flanked by National Press Club president, Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, left, and Joel Campagna, Committee to Protect Journalist, addresses...   (Associated Press)
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AP not convinced by assertions of evidence
BBC

AP protesting Hussein's incarceration
Los Angeles Times

 
Iraq • insurgents • US military • Ramadi • Associated Press • Bilal Hussein Zaidon

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