U.S. FINALLY RELEASES JOURNALIST SAMI AL HAJJ, LOCKED UP AT GUANTANAMO FOR OVER SIX YEARS, NO EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM

Finally, after six years, Sami al Hajj has been freed from his unjust detention and imprisonment at Guantanamo.

William Glaberson reports in today's The New York Times:

"A former cameraman for Al Jazeera who was believed to be the only journalist held at Guantánamo Bay was released on Thursday, after more than six years of detention that made him one of the best known Guantánamo detainees in the Arab world, his lawyers said.


"The detainee, Sami al-Hajj, became a cause in recent years for the Jazeera network, which often displayed his photograph and carried reports on his case.


"He was also one of Guantánamo’s long-term hunger strikers, and his lawyers at the British legal group Reprieve drew wide attention to what they said was his declining physical and mental health. "

I have previously posted on Sami al Hajj, noting how unfair it was that U.S. officials should keep him locked up without the slightest shred of evidence for his detention. See my post here on May 6, 2007, and here on July 29, 2007, and here on February 14, 2008.

Reports Glaberson:

"“It is yet another case where the U.S. has held someone for years and years and years on the flimsiest of evidence” without filing charges, one of the lawyers, Zachary Katznelson, said Thursday."

ISRAEL ACCUSES AL JAZEERA OF BIAS, WILL BOYCOTT ITS REPORTERS

Which is the most delusional and neo-con? The Bush regime or Israel's Olmert? Both seem to think they can solve all problems with bombs and missiles. Another similar trait is that they both want to kill the news messenger when they don't like the message.

The BBC reports that the Israel government is boycotting Al Jazeera because it thinks that its news is slanted.

"Israel has announced a boycott of the Arabic broadcaster al-Jazeera, accusing it of bias during coverage of the conflict in the Gaza Strip. Ministers will refuse to do interviews and will deny visa applications from its staff, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahbe said. He accused the Qatari-owned station of prioritising Palestinian suffering."

Where have we heard this before? From Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. They did not appreciate Al Jazeera's reporting from Iraq which showed the suffering and injuries to the civilian Iraqi population caused by U.S. missiles, bombs and U.S. troop rampages. Maybe this was the reason why several Al Jazeera reporters were killed by U.S. soldiers, the Baghdad office of Al Jazeera was targeted by a U.S. bomb, and an Al Jazeera photographer remains locked up in Guantanamo for the last five years without trial or charges.

Now it is Israeli government's turn to deny the Al Jazeera message. Reports the BBC:

"Israeli officials backed their claim by saying al-Jazeera had covered the Gaza incursion but not the Palestinian rocket attacks against the Israeli city of Ashkelon. . . .

"Bureau chief Walid al-Omari argued that his reporters had covered a Palestinian shooting attack in Jerusalem last week in which eight Israelis were killed. Israel is trying to "intimidate al-Jazeera to influence our coverage", Mr Omari said. "We are not the ones who launch rockets at Israel, and we are not the ones who send F-16s to bomb Gaza," he added. "

Press censorship of Al Jazeera did not work when called for by Bush and his gang. It won't work either this time when embraced by Olmert or his neo-con government. The whole world can see what is going on. America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, imprisons and tortures suspects. Israel, the one democracy in the Middle East, sends in war planes and tanks against a civilian Palestinian population.

FREE SUDANESE JOURNALIST IN GUANTANAMO

I received a mailing from Amnesty International a few days ago, and inside was an information sheet on Sami al-Haii, a Sudanese cameraman for Al-Jazeera. While on assignment in 2001 for Al-Jazeera, Al-Haii was arrested by the Pakistani police in December 2001 and turned over to the U.S. at Bagram air base.

"Sami al-Haii has described the 16 days . . . in Bagram . . . as 'the worst in my life.' He states that he was severely physically tortured and had dogs set upon him, that he was held in a cage inside a freezing aircraft hangar and was given insufficient, often frozen, food. He was then transferred to Kandahar, where his abuse continued. Sami al-Haii alleges that while there he was beaten regularly, as well as subjected to sexual abuse by U.S. soldiers, and forced into stress position.

"Sami al-Haii was transferred to Guantanamo Bay on June 13, 2002, where he remains. He has been constantly interrogated about any possible links between his employers and Islamist extremists."

Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld call the prisoners at Guantanamo the "worst of the worst." Do they mean Sami-al-Haii? His case shows why Guantanamo must be closed and why each internee there must be given a hearing on the merits in Federal court according to the rule of law.