Reuters photographer says reborn after freed by U.S.

[David]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military freed a Reuters photographer in Iraq on Wednesday, almost a year and a half after snatching him from his home in the middle of the night and holding him without charge.

The U.S. military never has said exactly why its forces detained Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed -- who worked for Reuters as a freelance TV cameraman and photographer -- and locked him away for so long, saying the evidence against him was classified.

"How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born again," Jassam told Reuters by telephone as he was greeted emotionally by his family.

U.S. and Iraqi forces smashed in the doors to Jassam's house in Mahmudiya town, south of Baghdad, in September 2008 and whisked him away.

He spent time in a desert prison on the Iraq-Kuwait border, called Camp Bucca, and the smaller Camp Cropper detention center near Baghdad airport.

Jassam was one of several Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organizations who have been detained by the U.S. military, often for months at a time, since the 2003 U.S. invasion. None has ever been charged, triggering criticism from international journalism rights groups.

"I am very pleased his long incarceration without charge is finally over," Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.

"I wish the process to release a man who had no specific accusations against him had been swifter."

The U.S. military has asserted that Jassam was a "security threat." The accusations had to do with "activities with insurgents," it said last year, without giving any specifics.

The term "insurgents" generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups. Jassam is a Shi'ite Muslim.

The United States military did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on his release.

"I still cannot believe that my son is next to me," Ibrahim's mother, Fadhila Alwan, said.

"Thanks be to God. I cannot speak. I will keep him in my arms for days but I will not be able to get enough of him."

Under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that gave Iraq back its sovereignty this year, the U.S. military has handed over thousands of Iraqis it had detained.

It still holds almost 6,000 detainees. They eventually must be transferred to Iraqi authorities. If they face Iraqi criminal charges they will be tried, otherwise they will be freed.

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court has ruled that there was no case against Jassam.

A month before arresting him, U.S. forces detained Reuters cameraman Ali Mashhadani and held him for three weeks without charge, the third time he was detained. Mashhadani was held for five months in 2005.

"This is happy news but at the same time sad news," said Ziad al-Ajili, head of the Iraqi press lobby group The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory.

"Who is going to compensate Ibrahim for the 17 months he spent in prison innocent of all the accusations the American army made against him?"

[BLUEHAWK]

I feel confident that the "American Army" had some reason to take Mr. Ibrahim out of the picture for awhile.

Now, he's Iraq's problem again.

May his turban be dry cleaned.