FREE AL JAZEERA JOURNALIST LOCKED UP IN GUANTANAMO

On the Media had a segment today on Sami Al Hajj, the Sudanese cameraman working for Al Jazeera, who was taken captive in Pakistan in 2001, and who has been locked up in Guantanamo pretty much ever since.



Al Hajj's story is mind-blowing. He is a 39-year old cameraman who the U.S. accuses of being a terrorist, but who has never seen the charges, and who has never been brought up on formal charges. I thought this was anathema to American law and constitution, that someone could be locked up with no prospect of release and no prospect of receiving a speedy trial. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides:


"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, . . . and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."

Al Jazeera has a web site devoted to Al Hajj's release. His continued detention without trial puts a stain on the U.S. and its government and military. Al Hajj should be charged or forthwith released. But the U.S. should not keep him or the other 400 prisoners locked away to rot in Guantanamo without due process.

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.