Freedom and Democracy in Iraq, Pt. 1,984

Getting as close to the action in Iraq as this photographer did isn't for everybody. Americans would not be able accomplish it, for obvious reasons.

The Associated Press photographer who took this picture of street-fighting insurgents in Ramadi in February of last year has been in jail for five months. U.S. Military officials say Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen and native of Fallujah, is a security threat, but he hasn't yet been charged with anything.

Hussein began working for AP in September of 2004. He was jailed in April of this year for "imperative reasons of security." What those reasons are has not been specified in formal charges, although several hints were darkly broached in an e-mail from a U.S. Army general to an A.P. executive.

"We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable," said Tom Curley, AP's president and chief executive officer. "We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure."

Today's AP article also reveals that "Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide — 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

"In Hussein's case, the military has not provided any concrete evidence to back up the vague allegations they have raised about him, Curley and other AP executives said."

However, according to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jack Gardner, in charge of all the U.S. detainees in Iraq, Hussein was apprehended in the company of insurgents, inluding one of al-Qaida in Iraq's made men. In a May 7 e-mail to AP International Editor John Daniszewski, Gardner claimed that "The information available establishes that (Bilal Hussein) has relationships with insurgents and is afforded access to insurgent activities outside the normal scope afforded to journalists conducting legitimate activities."

The AP was working quietly in its attempts to free Hussein up until now, but has decided to publicize the situation in hopes that international scrutiny will call attention to his case as well as those of the thousands of others now held in Iraq without being charged.

One of Hussein's photos was included in a package of 20 breaking news images that won a Pulitzer Prize for the Associated Press last year. See number 15 in the string of 20.