Feb
Al Jazeera cameraman jailed in Guantanamo for six years to be released
PHOTO: People dressed as Guantanamo Bay prisoners protest in Washington D.C. on January 11, 2008, Keith Ivey, flickr.
Sami Al Hajj is a “household name” in the Arab world according to New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristoff.
A cameraman for the Arabic news network Al Jazeera, he was captured by American forces in Afghanistan while trying to cover the war. He ended up in the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been for over six years, and has been on a hunger strike to protest his detention.
His lawyers say he has been subjected to beatings, starvation, freezing temperatures and anal searches in public to humiliate him. Government officials have accused him of being a financial courier and supporting extremist groups.
In his column, Kristoff writes, “One indication that the government doesn’t take its own charges seriously, the lawyers say, is that the U.S. offered Mr. Hajj a deal: immediate freedom if he would spy on Al Jazeera. Mr. Hajj refused.”
His wife recently got word that al Hajj will be released.
What if American journalists had been treated the same way in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world? Does America’s strong protection of journalist rights extend to foreign journalists as well, or is it a privilege reserved for American journalists?
