Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
The US War on Journalists
Sami al-Haj is a free man today, after having been imprisoned by the U.S. military for more than six years. His crime: journalism.
Targeting journalists, the Bush administration has engaged in direct assault, intimidation, imprisonment and information blackouts to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs. The principal target these past seven years has been Al-Jazeera, the Arabic television network based in Doha, Qatar.
In November 2001, despite the fact that Al-Jazeera had given the U.S. military the coordinates of its office in Kabul, U.S. warplanes bombed Al-Jazeera's bureau there, destroying it. An Al-Jazeera reporter covering the George Bush-Vladimir Putin summit in Crawford, Texas, in the same month was detained by the FBI because his credit card was "linked to Afghanistan." In spring 2003, the U.S. dropped four bombs on the Sheraton hotel in Basra, Iraq, where Al-Jazeera correspondents-the only journalists reporting from that city-were the lone guests. Another Al-Jazeera staffer showed his ID to a U.S. Marine at a Baghdad checkpoint, only to have his car fired upon by the Marines. He was unhurt. That can't be said for Tareq Ayyoub, an Al-Jazeera correspondent who was on the roof of the network's bureau in Baghdad on April 8, 2003, when a U.S. warplane strafed it. He was killed. His widow, Dima Tahboub, told me: "Hate breeds hate. The United States said they were doing this to rout out terrorism. Who is engaged in terrorism now?"
Then there is the story of Sami al-Haj. A cameraman for Al-Jazeera, he was reporting on the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. On Dec. 15, 2001, while in a Pakistani town near the Afghanistan border, Haj was arrested, then imprisoned in Afghanistan. Six months later, shackled and gagged, he was flown to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. Haj was held there for close to six years, repeatedly interrogated and never charged with any crime, never tried in a court. He engaged in a hunger strike for more than a year, but was force-fed by his jailers with a feeding tube sent into his stomach through his nose. Haj was abruptly released this week. The U.S. government announced that he was being transferred to the custody of Sudan, his home nation, but the government of Sudan took no action against him. He was rushed to an emergency room, and soon was seen on his old network, Al-Jazeera:
"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. Our human condition, our human dignity was violated, and the American administration went beyond all human values, all moral values, all religious values. In Guantanamo, you have animals that are called iguanas, rats that 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 to animals." He described the desecration of the Quran as part of the effort to break him: "They hold the Quran in contempt, destroyed it several times and put their dirty feet on it. They also sat on the Quran while trying to get us angry. They repeatedly committed violations against our dignity and our sexual organs." At least one official in the Defense Department has denied the charges.
Asim al-Haj, Sami's brother, told me in an interview last January about the 130 interrogations: "During these times, the interrogations were all about Al-Jazeera and alleged relations between Al-Jazeera and al-Qaida. They tried to induce him to spy on his colleagues at Al-Jazeera."
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 10 journalists have been held for extended periods by the U.S. military and then released without charge. Just weeks ago in Iraq, the U.S. military released Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein after holding him without charge for two years. The military had once accused Hussein of being a "terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP."
The committee reports that 127 journalists and an additional 50 media workers have been killed in Iraq since 2003, well more than twice the number killed in World War II. We need to remind the Bush administration: Don't shoot the messenger.
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in North America. Her third book, "Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times," was published in April.
© 2008 Amy Goodman
69 Comments so far
Show AllAll done in blatant violation of the First Amendment. Can't believe there's no big lawsuit over this.
Our country is like Animal Farm...and you know who ran the show there!
Gee. the Kommandant of Guantanamo claims he was healthy and active upon his departure to Sudan (but no proof - no pictures, no nothing). Maybe we need to find out how he defines "healthy".
The jet-lag must have been really bad.
Just wait 'til the US administration critical journalists get to experience "healthy" environment centers during Bush's 3rd term.
One incident not mentioned in the article was the act of a US tank commander firing on the hotel that contained CNN journalist during the opening days of 'shock and awe' in the invasion of IRAQ.
The funny thing is Al-Jazeera is actually considered a pro-American, semi-right wing paper/network by most Islamic academia. I watch the news network (outside the U.S.) and the show is quite American in style and content but with a bigger emphasis on the Middle East of course. The problem though is that the U.S. MIC and Big Oil don't control Al-Jazeera's content.
It would be nice if the U.S. had at least one major network that countered the propaganda and right wing agenda that our corporate media feeds us 24-7, but we don't. Anybody have any ideas of how to rectify that situation?
When they start arresting Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos and Katie Couric as enemies of the state it will be time to start running. Revolutions always devour their own and the Reagan-George Herbert Wanker Bush-Bill Clinton-George Wanker Bush Revolution is on its way to bringing totalitarianism to the United States. As it is - do you have a passport and a minimum set of situations that will trigger your flight?
The present battle in Lebanon was touched off when the Lebanese government declared the Hezbollah Broadcasting network illegal.
Hezbollah is accused by Israel and the US of being controlled by Iran.
Both the US and Israel are pushing for a war on Iran.
Is this the first battle in that wider war?
As soon as Rupert Murdoch acquires Al-Jazeera, you'll see a different U.S. Republican Government trend concerning their "journalism". They must be FOXized.
Or, as an alternative, we voters could do "regime change" in America. I like this latter option better.
Mordecai - YES and I keep checking the list - only 3 or 4 items left to be checked off before emergency departure from Amerikka.
The US Middle East policy is remarkably similar to Israel's. In Israel they target and shoot journalists.
More journalists get shot/arrested by US and Israeli forces than the communist Chinese.
Book 3, chap V; 1984, by George Orwell -
" At each stage of his imprisonment he had known, or seemed to know, whereabouts he was in the windowless building. Possibily there were slight sifferences in the air pressure. The cells where the guards had beaten him wre below ground level. The room where he had been interrogated by O'Brien was high up near the roof. This place was many meters underground, as deep down as it was possible to go.
It was bigger than most of the cells he had been in. But he hardly noticed his surroundings. All he noticed was that there were two small tables straight in front of him, each covered with green baize. One was only a meter or two from him; the other was further away, near the door. He was strapped upright in a chair, so tightly that he could move nothing, not even his head. A sort of pad gripped his head from behind, forcing him to look straight in front of him.
For a moment he was alone, then the door opened and O'Brien came in.
'You asked me once,' said O'Brien, 'what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everybody knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.'
The door opened again. A guard cam in, carrying something made of wire, a box or basket of some kind. He set it down on the further table. Because of the position in which O'Brien was standing, Winston could not see what the thing was.
'The worst thing in the world,' said O'Brien, 'varies from individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.'
He had moved ta little to one side so that Winston had a better view of the thing on the table. It was an oblong wire cage with a handle on top for carrying it by. Fixed to the front of it was something that looked like a fencing mask, with the concave side outwards. Although it was three or four meters away from him, he could see that the cage was divided lengthways into two compartments, and that there was some kind of creature in each. They were rats.
'In your case,' said O'Brien, 'the worst thing in the world happens to be rats.'"
Hummmmm..... coincidence, I think not, The rats outside of the cage are really worse than the rats inside of the cage....
george, dick, rummy, wolfie, pearlie, rove, addie, tube-yoo and alberto....
sum law firm that... "how to dismantle the constitution in 8 short years...."
its been fun....KCT
The dems as well as Disney (ABC), NBC (GE) and the rest of the US media cartel are to blame.
They could have made an issue of what was going on and instead, they cowed in fear or joined Bush in collaboration.
They are all to blame if you ask me.
They all lie and then they lie some more.
I sit and read these articles day after day and I often honestly feel like it's fiction.
This cannot be happening in America.
But it isn't fiction and I feel so helpless that I cannot do a damn thing to stop it. I'm not alone, Kucinch failed, Cindy Sheehan is harrassed and arrested when she protsts, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader and others like them are made to be fools by the media, we Americans cannot seem to join together in any meaningful manner.
Most Americans are oblivious of what is occurring and we here at Common Dreams sit and blog our disgust, our dis-belief and our protests.
Someone will post a comment here later on that we have to have a million person march, or have a one day sit out, or impeach now, and on and on. Meanwhile the Bush cartel will continue to do exactly what they intend to do and our 'elected' Congress members do nothing to stop them and won't even reply to our fair questions or honest protests.
I see on the news today that Lieberman is trying to have action taken by those who post comments on internet chat rooms. Of course some web sites indeed need to be monitered as it's true that some terrorist groups are using the web to promote terrorist attacks. They should be stopped.
But that aside, what is happenig to honest and sincere journalists is more than frightening. Thank You for this fine article Amy Goodman. ___ I like you.
Can't we do a class action lawsuit of concerned citizens? I'd gladly sign on!
It should be no surprise that the Bush administration holds these journalists in such contempt. The "journalists" in the US who have "provided cover for" rather than "covering" the myriad criminal acts of this administration, have taught Bush one thing: that his power is unlimited, because there is no one who has the courage to challenge him.
Does anyone remember when shows like "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation" would get in these elected officials faces, and challenge their answers (lies).
Journalism has been going downhill since Tom Paine wrote one of the Crisis papers on a drum-head in the midst of General Washington's encampment, after a battle. (I'll trade you 4 Tim Russerts and 3 George Stephanopoliss for one Ed Murrow.)
So so what if Bush kills some foreign reporters? No one in main stream media is going to give it more than 15 seconds of airtime. And after Bush commits tomorrow's crimes, no one will remember today's crimes, anyway.
We should just be glad he hasn't just started organizing firing squads, yet. Who would stop him?
jimm
Gosh, with the first ammendment what it is I wonder why there's no al jazeera here in this country? I would think they'd want to tell their side of the story. Anybody know?
The truth is getting to be a dangerous commodity. Good thing we can make our own reality.
How long before they try to take down Amy Goodman?
Well kem patrick,
I think that it won't be long before our type is targeted. If terrorists should be stopped from talking and imprisoned for it, then I guess we better be damned careful about what the definition of a terrorist is. Because if you don't like the president and if you want to try to stop something he wants to do then you are obviously a threat to this nation.
Kem Patrick I hear exactly what you're sayin ol' man... and I feel that way too... It seems so hopeless sometimes. We can sit here and blog until we're blue in the face but really, are we accomplishing anything? What needs to happen is for the people to take 'back' the power (I put 'back' in quotes because it is in question that the people ever had power to begin with), but how do we do that? The country needs to be shut down until the those in power step aside, but the reality is that's next to impossible. As well, even if we got 1 million people to march on Washington, I doubt that it would make one iota of a difference... Voting isn't going to change anything. So what do we do?
Kem and Qbalds- And what makes you think CD and those who post on it are not being monitored already?
Remember the Bush Junta 'Total Information Awareness' program?
I would be willing to bet that the posters 'Brontoburger', 'Banjoman', and 'Angstofthepoeple' are CIA or FBI paid informants (trolls).
What about the warrant-lees wiretaps, and the so-called 'anthrax mailer' that was engineered to let Bushco open and read private mail, in violation of the US right to freedom of speech and expression.
So are we really surprised that the US has a 'pet' media monopoly, and that those who might dare to reveal the truth 'accidentally' end up on the receiving end of the imperialist bayonet?
mordechai, I don't fly that often but when I do, without fail, I get the full search treatment. My wife and I have to schedule to get to the airport sooner than normal because of it. The screener says, "sir, this is a computer generated random search". Last time I said "yeah right, with those odds I ought to be going to Vegas". He didn't laugh, but neither did I cuz it ain't funny.
Thank you Amy for all you try to do. It is so pathetic that a group of greedy, blood-thirsty and power mongers like this administration feel the need to destroy what the US used to represent. For what? In the end....absolutely nothing but to inflict suffering on others for whatever objective their small minds and dead souls seek.
Hi Galen. I'm certain we are being monitored and know for sure there are dozens of trolls operating here at C/D now. And twice I have recently been cut off while submitting a comment here by a website and a screen pops up that reads "WORLD PRESS" and it reads I have used the wrong name or password to log on and I'm then disconnected from the internet. Have a hard time then getting back on. Someone doesn't like what I post.
I don't believe it is right for us to be monitored and don't like it one bit. But there are websites now where admitted terrorist groups are showing how to be a sniper or blow up infastructures and kill anyone, etc, and they're enticing Americans to do that.
They should be stopped. That's not free speech anymore than yelling "fire" in a theatre would be, when someone advocttes violence and killing or bringng down our country.
I don't care that much for Tim Russert anymore but I sure do like Keith Olbermann and Helen Thomas. We need a lot more of those. Tim Russert for example had Obama on for an hour Sunday and he didn't hit Obama on his saying he doesn't accept PAC money. When in fact he has taken ___$131 million ___in PAC money and from many of the same PACS Hillary and McCain have and Russert should be fully aware of that lie.
~REBELNOW~ it's your name that scares them.
qbaldsmoove, al jazeera is in the US, as a TV station. It had to sign a capitulation type of statement with the Republicans in order to get the rights to be in the US.
Hey - according the Sen RF today, all the Pres has to do is find some cocksucker to write a "memo" that all journalists who disagree with The Decider are terrorists, and it will become a secret law of the land.
Problem solved, eh?
KEM PATRICK: I've posted reasonable ideas for real actions on here & elsewhere; they are always completely ignored. It's not that they are bad ideas, it's that they would require getting off our butts and DOING! Action is what is needed. Why not pamphleteer when the media doesn't do it's job? We'll do it for them. Why not have a mock impeachment/trial of the Bush thugs? Why not organize a huge tens of thousands protest when they refuse to allow other parties at the debates in the fall? We can do these things, but folks would rather bitch & moan & do nothing, apparently.
We're way off topic, again.
Curmudgeon - I know what you mean by "off topic", but I think that we are all journalists on here, all expressing our views to each other.
We have to motivate and mobilise others to demonstrate, to attend marches. We had a million plus in London pre Iraq war, but it should have been a million plus in all of the major cities.
The mainstream press is simply the mouthpiece for the establishment, and we have to reclaim it for the people.
"Good point"!!??? And you two guys are on topic??___LOL.
curmudgeon99 May 8th, 2008 5:43 pm
We're way off topic, again.
Good point!!
Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos and Katie Couric may not be enemies of the state but they are long time foes of the truth.
I've said this so many times. As long as there is a TV in every living room, any set of big biz pple plus government can use it to hornswaggle the 50% they need to keep them voted in. Therefore, our first attack must be to eliminate television. Second, to eliminate all hi tech voting, since it is so easily manipulated. Third, to tax any company which makes over one billion dollars per year at 100% above that income. Problem solved. The issue, of course, is that even CD people are addicted to their tubes and cannot tolerate the idea of eliminating that pleasure. These things take time. Maybe we don't have the time. And the alternative action is? I am certainly open to suggestion.
As for the intimations we're monitored on this site, if you had any doubts, the 900 plus comments on the 911 article MUST HAVE raised some alarm bells, especially when some of our own little informed community herein let it be known that they were onto the many unexplained FACTS that certainly warrant at the least greater scrutiny, as in a BONA FIDE investigation!
amy goodman - thank you for keeping us updated on this story over time.
CD editors thank you for including this article.
a great site that focuses on this topic 'committee to protect journalists'
including databases for murdered journalists w/ bios.
http://www.cpj.org/deadly/
top 20 list of countries where journalists have been murdered since 1992.
Top 20 Countries
1. Iraq: 127
2. Algeria: 60
3. Russia: 47
4. Colombia: 40
5. Philippines: 32
6. India: 22
7. Somalia: 22
8. Bosnia: 19
9. Turkey: 19
10 Pakistan: 19
11. Afghnistan: 17
12. Rwanda: 16
13. Sierra Leone: 16
14. Tajikistan: 16
15. Brazil: 15
16. Sri Lanka: 14
17. Mexico: 14
18. Bangladesh: 12
19. Angola: 8
20. Yugoslavia: 8
...peace...
If you are curious as to what al Jazeera is really like, try watching its English station at www.aljazeera.net/english
You may be surprised at what you get.
Galen May 8th, 2008 1:14 pm
"The present battle in Lebanon was touched off when the Lebanese government declared the Hezbollah Broadcasting network illegal.Hezbollah is accused by Israel and the US of being controlled by Iran."
i have to question what the US government's motivation was for releasing sami-al-haj. it seems that releasing a political prisoner who was detained under nebulous circumstances for over 6 years while being tortured - would not be the person the govt would release to a popular arab news outlet.
there's a lot of coded messages hidden here. the muslim population will have a chance to focus meticulously on the torture techniques employed by the americans and sami- al-haj's story itself. it seems like a natural story to energize the fundamentalist islamic base.
-----------------------------
Mordechai Shiblikov 1:12 pm
As it is - do you have a passport and a minimum set of situations that will trigger your flight?
good questions. yes and yes...
-----------------------------------
andrew.herman May 8th, 2008 1:26 pm
it's nice to know the US is in good company when it comes to human rights violations (china/russia - death penalty for example).
-------------------------------
Galen 2:34 pm
"Kem and Qbalds- And what makes you think CD and those who post on it are not being monitored already?"
many people i know were monitored before the advent of the internet. remember those funny noises on the phone at awkward moments? and the people at the rally who never participated in community or expressed their opinions w/ conviction? the net just makes it easier to 'monitor' us.
i'm reminded of the A minuses that find refuge w/ other inquisitive minds at the end of huxleys brave new world, they will let us communicate until we pose a real threat to their power. it will be more difficult to find divergent views and camaraderie in a toto authoritarian state (gestapo and all).
---------------------------------------
KEM PATRICK 3:27 pm
thank you (and peaceman and others)for drawing my attention to the possibility (reality) of censorship here. it's sad and i wonder how amy goodman or bill moyers would feel about that? (censorship of the GS term at common dreams)
i don't know what to say. except i was raised in illinois and was a boy when the nazis marched through skokie (one of largest concentration of holocaust survivors) carrying swastikas; pretty offensive behavior - but protected by the 1st amendment. censorship is not progressive......
6:41 pm
good point.........
-----------------------------------------
AndyUK 6:05 pm
we are all journalists and philosophers for we are human..
-----------------------------------------
...peace...
If you think you are being monitored follow Thumper's Rule, "If you can't say something nice (right wing) don't say nothing at all."
Thank you, Amy, for saying something not nice because it is the truth.
KEM PATRICK said:
"I see on the news today that Lieberman is trying to have action taken by those who post comments on internet chat rooms. Of course some web sites indeed need to be monitered as it's true that some terrorist groups are using the web to promote terrorist attacks. They should be stopped."
Stopped, no way. The internet is the wild, wild west andstopped mean censorship by US ISPs.
"Lieberman says the United States lacks a cohesive and comprehensive outreach and communications strategy to confront terrorist ideology and reduce its appeal within the United States.
"The United States must counter the influence of this ideology in order to deter homegrown attacks like the ones that have already been seen in cities like Madrid, London and Amsterdam," he said.
Lieberman says Congress and the administration must decide what new laws, programs or tactics should be adopted to combat homegrown terrorism.Lieberman says the United States lacks a cohesive and comprehensive outreach and communications strategy to confront terrorist ideology and reduce its appeal within the United States.
"The United States must counter the influence of this ideology in order to deter homegrown attacks like the ones that have already been seen in cities like Madrid, London and Amsterdam," he said.
Lieberman says Congress and the administration must decide what new laws, programs or tactics should be adopted to combat homegrown terrorism."
Seems to me that adherence to the principles espoused in the Constitution and the rule of law would be quite sufficient to counteract a terrorist ideology. Unfortunately since Cheney gravitated toward the "dark side" the moral high ground has been completely lost and it is difficult to distinguish between terrorist ideology and US government policy.
"More journalists get shot/arrested by US and Israeli forces than the communist Chinese."
Can you or anyone support this claim?
"And twice I have recently been cut off while submitting a comment here by a website and a screen pops up that reads "WORLD PRESS""
KEM PATRICK: Hey easy with the paranoia. I got a WORDPRESS message about a duplicate post just now while replying from my sadly overloaded machine.
Hi ~Siouxrose~, did you see what happened to that thread on 9-11? The last three days posts were "obliterated". (Love that word, it's so popular now.) Most of Namast's posts are gone. It's in the archives, April 7th. Most of Namast's posts are gone from a lot of other articles too. Zapppppp. So is Namaste and Nspire I notice. Think they were one and the same.
They have you on their radar ~PROF~. You wrote ~Lieberman~ too many times.
Pretty messed up eh? The whole ordeal? I can tell you that interpretors over there are afraid to tell Marines who are not in charge their personal thoughts on the issues at stake, I can only imagine how hard it would be to be a journalist knowing that your observations will be twisted against you.
Fear not. All will be well.
I The just read story about Jamail on CDs that is very refreshing; and I plan to read his book. Be very careful Jamail, and all who reports from Afghanistan and Iraq.
I don't know about other attacks and occupations, but News reporters are targeted by US terrorists in these two.
Aljazeera seems to be low on propaganda and reports the real News. I have read stories from the Website that Suhai_shafi referred to since 2003.
"But there are websites now where admitted terrorist groups are showing how to be a sniper or blow up infastructures and kill anyone, etc, and they're enticing Americans to do that."
You should have mentioned that these sites are funded by the CIA and NSA and are nothing more than Gladio 'props'.
What's Gladio? http://www.copi.com/articles/guyatt/gladio.html
Sorry to go way off subject but...
Has anyone tried being an "Anti Troll" in a right wing site?
Ive posted progressive truths on several pro Israeli blogs, and had response's
akin to death threats. 'Tis interesting, maybe a bit dangerous but great insight into how these warped minds work.
To the Man: We are watching you too..........
Clubconnector - good point, for every site like Common Dreams or Anti War, you have an equal number of radical right wing sites. Reading the mainstream British press (what I would at one time have called the intelligent broad sheets), and looking at the forums, will unearth a great many far right, radical views, loaded with hate, and totally lacking ideas of compromise.
Getting back on topic, independent journalists are seen as a threat, because they owe no alliegence to anyone. They can challenge the establishment, and plant seeds of doubt in people's brains. If there are enough people going "off message", then there is a danger of insurrection.
Suhail Shafi - thanks for posting the link to the English version of Al Jazeera. I don't get Sky News, or any of the satellite packages, so cannot get this.
As Tsunami rightly points out, Al Jazeera deals with news, often in a graphic way, but does not compromise on the truth. Maybe this is why the Al Jazeera building was shelled by US tanks at the beginning of the Iraq war.
Our leaders together with the established media, do not want us to see the truth.