"Cameraman Is Released From Guantánamo"
“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....
The case did not draw the attention among American journalists.... As with most Guantánamo detainees, the Pentagon’s evidence against him was largely secret....
"Largely" or all? Pffft!
The case was part of what he called a disturbing trend of the American military to hold journalists for long periods without charges before eventually releasing them....
Like the AP guy!
Mr. Katznelson said Mr. Hajj had been “almost overwhelmed” at the prospect of seeing his 7-year-old son, who was an infant when he left home. But he said the former detainee’s health was so fragile that he would immediately go to a hospital after his military plane touched down..."
Just wondering when the Zionist-controlled AmeriKan MSM is going to wake up to this fascism that threatens even them.
Oh, wait a minute. No it doesn't.
We will always have a New York Times dispensing propaganda!
Just like Pravda in the USSR!!!!
Update: "Sami al-Hajj hits out at US captors"
"Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj has hit out at the US treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison where he was held for nearly six and a half years.
Saying that "rats are treated with more humanity", al-Hajj said inmates' "human dignity was violated".
"Al-Hajj was held for 6 1/2 years with no trial, just accusations, and suddenly....he's released with not even an "I'm sorry; our bad" from this administration.
This is the kind of behavior we expect from dictators.
And again, a word of advice to those traveling abroad who feel an overwhelming sense to talk about the American love for - and exercise of - freedom, justice, and democracy; just please shut up until the urge passes.
People around the world understand very clearly that these values are despised by those in the highest governmental offices in this land." -- Mike Rivero of whatreallyhappened.com
And Bush was just crowing about "freedom" and "human dignity" in his insane ramble in St. Louis!!!
His brother, Asim al-Hajj, said he did not recognise the cameraman because he looked like a man in his 80s.
Still, al-Hajj said: "I was lucky because God allowed that I be released."
But his attention soon turned to the 275 inmates he left behind in the US military prison.
'Dignity violated'
"I'm very happy to be in Sudan, but I'm very sad because of the situation of our brothers who remain in Guantanamo. Conditions in Guantanamo are very, very bad and they get worse by the day," he said from his hospital bed.
"Our human condition, our human dignity was violated, and the American administration went beyond all human values, all morale values, all religious values.
"In Guantanamo ... rats are treated with more humanity. But we have people from more than 50 countries that are completely deprived of all rights and privileges.
"And they will not give them the rights that they give animals," he said.
Al-Hajj complained that "for more than seven years, [inmates] did not get a chance to be brought before a civil court to defend their just case".
Free man
The US embassy in Khartoum issued a brief statement confirming that a "detainee transfer" to Sudan had taken place and saying it appreciated Sudan's co-operation.
A senior US defence official in Washington speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that al-Hajj was "not being released [but] being transferred to the Sudanese government".
But Sudan's justice minister told Al Jazeera that al-Hajj was a free man and would not be arrested or face any charges.
Two other Sudanese inmates at Guantanamo, Amir Yacoub al-Amir and Walid Ali, were freed along with al-Hajj.
The Reprieve organisation that represents some Guantanamo inmates said Moroccan detainee Said Boujaadia was also released and flown home on the same aircraft as the three Sudanese.
Al-Hajj was the only journalist from a major international news organisation held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for the network's broadcasts.
Seized in 2001
He was seized by Pakistani intelligence officers while travelling near the Afghan border in December 2001.
Despite holding a legitimate visa to work for Al Jazeera's Arabic channel in Afghanistan, he was handed to the US military in January 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Al-Hajj, who is originally from Sudan, was held as an "enemy combatant" without ever facing trial or charges.
Al-Hajj was never prosecuted at Guantanamo so the US did not make public its full allegations against him.
But in a hearing that determined that he was an enemy combatant, US officials alleged that in the 1990s, al-Hajj was an executive assistant at a Qatar-based beverage company that provided support to Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya.
Yeah, while he was working for Bill Clinton!!!
C'mon, people, wake up!!
Fat fuck Bill used "Al-CIA-Duh" against the Serbs (in addition to littering the place with D.U.)!
Contrary to what you've heard, "Al-CIA-Duh" is STILL a U.S. ASSET!!!!
The US claimed he also travelled to Azerbaijan at least eight times to carry money on behalf of his employer to the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a now defunct charity that US authorities say funded armed groups.
The US also clamed he met Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, allegedly a senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden who was arrested in Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States.
His lawyers have always denied the allegations.
'Element of racism'
Al-Hajj had been on hunger strike since January 7, 2007.
David Remes, a lawyer for 17 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, told Al Jazeera that the treatment al-Hajj received "was more horrific than most" and that there was "an element of racism" in the way he was treated.
He said he had been in contact with the lawyer representing al-Hajj and it appeared the cameraman had been "psychologically damaged".
"The Europeans would never receive this treatment," Remes said.
About 275 detainees remain at Guantanamo and the lawyer said European detainees had all been returned to their country, leaving nationalities such as Yemenis - who now constitute one third of the inmate population.
Remes said al-Hajj had been released because the Bush administration "wants to flush as many men out of Guantanamo as quickly as possible … as Guantanamo has become such an international badge of shame".
"Once the Supreme Court said the men could have lawyers the pressure increased [on the US] and condemnation isolated the US administration. Guantanamo was a PR disaster," he said.
"Unfortunately Americans appreciate violations of rights but they have no sympathy for men held at Guantanamo as the [Bush] administration has done such a good job in portraying them as the worst of the worst and as evil doers.
Would dumb-shit 'murkns even care?
Only when the torture was applied to them!!!
Otherwise, it's chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp!!
"I've met many prisoners, gotten to appreciate their suffering ... we know them as humans not as worst of worst, we've met their families.
"I've been to Guantanamo and the human dimension of Guantanamo is a story yet to be told," Remes said.
Al Jazeera concerns
Al Jazeera had been campaigning for al-Hajj's release since his capture nearly six and a half years ago.
Wadah Khanfar, the network's director-general who was in Khartoum to welcome al-Hajj, said "we are overwhelmed with joy".
But he criticised the US military for urging al-Hajj to spy on his employers.
"We are concerned about the way the Americans dealt with Sami, and we are concerned about the way they could deal with others as well," he said.
"Sami will continue with Al Jazeera, he will continue as a professional person who has done great jobs during his work with Al Jazeera.
"We congratulate his family and all those who knew Sami and loved Sami and worked for this moment."
You wonder when some New York Times reporters (like James Risen) will make it to Gitmo, huh?
Maybe then they will get off their asses and... oh, never mind.
They already jailed Judy Miller and you saw what has happened since.
Just proves the fooleys of the AmeriKan MSM!
Also see: The New York Times: Israel's Mouthpiece
Israel Writes The New York Times News Pages
