Alan Johnston vs Sami al-Hajj

[carlito]

Which of the two have you heard of?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/6546059.stm

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has added his voice to calls for the release of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, abducted in Gaza a month ago.

He said freedom of the press should be protected "as a matter of principle".

On an international day of action to highlight the veteran reporter's plight, his parents also made a direct appeal to his captors for his release.

The BBC, al-Jazeera, and Sky News simulcast a special live programme on the dangers facing journalists in Gaza.

Speaking in New York, Mr Ban said: "I sincerely hope that those who are responsible for this abduction should release him unconditionally and immediately.

"I will do whatever I can in my capacity as secretary-general but my sympathy is with the family of Mr Alan Johnston."

Growing concerns

Head of news for BBC World, Richard Porter, said the BBC had wanted to create a programme which had impact in the Middle East and around the globe.

A BBC poster campaign has also been unveiled at prominent sites in London and Mr Johnston's native Scotland.

There are so many people worldwide all hoping and praying for your release, not least of which I'm sure, are the vast majority of the Palestinian population

Father's statement

Alan's father, Graham Johnston, read a message to his son, telling him not to worry about his family, saying that they were "hanging in there" and "keeping a stiff upper lip".

Mr Johnston thanked the BBC, his son's fellow journalists and the Palestinian people for their support.

"We are overwhelmed at such support, all of which helps to buoy us up during the past seemingly interminable four weeks," he said at the news conference in London.

He appealed directly to the kidnappers, saying: "You have family. Please think about what this is doing to my family. Please let my son go now, today."

At Trafalgar Square in central London, the media rights group Reporters Without Borders staged a rally to appeal for Mr Johnston's freedom.

In Gaza City, about 200 Palestinian journalists gathered at government and security offices to demand more action for the release of their colleague.

To date, 12,000 people have signed a BBC online petition demanding the immediate release of Mr Johnston.

In the West Bank, BBC director general Mark Thompson also made a direct appeal for his release, saying there were growing concerns for his well-being.

Mr Thompson met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.

"He told me that he had credible evidence that Alan was safe and well. He assured me that Palestinian Authority is fully engaged with Alan's case and working to resolve this as soon as possible," Mr Thompson said.

But he emphasised that there had been no contact with any kidnappers and no demands had been received.

He went on: "It is vital for all journalists to be able to report freely and without fear of harassment and intimidation. The people of Gaza are ill-served by kidnappings of this nature."

Broadcasters unite

A half-hour programme was broadcast from the West Bank town of Ramallah, anchored by Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East Editor. It included reports from al-Jazeera, CNN and Sky.

Introducing the programme, Mr Bowen said: "About the only good thing to come out of the last month is the way Alan's colleagues, especially here in the occupied Palestinian territories, have rallied around him.

"This is the first time that global news networks have come together like this. We stand united in support of Alan Johnston - and all our colleagues who are in harm's way," he said.

The chairman of the Foreign Press Association, Simon McGregor-Wood, told the programme that news coverage of Gaza would suffer as a result of Mr Johnston's disappearance.

"I think it is the stories that provide context and background, very important for our audience to understand Gaza, those are the stories that are simply not going to be done.

"It is too dangerous, people are scared," he said.

Alan Johnston was taken hostage by masked gunmen as he returned to his apartment in Gaza City on 12 March.

Kidnappers have abducted dozens of foreigners in Gaza, but none have been held so long as Mr Johnston.

The 44-year-old joined the BBC World Service in 1991 and has spent eight of the last 16 years as a correspondent, including periods in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

He has lived and worked in Gaza for three years and was the only Western reporter permanently based in the often violent and lawless territory.

His posting in Gaza had been due to end in late March.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Al -Jazeera Cameraman Still at Guantanamo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...435812,00.html

By BEN FOX and ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

Associated Press Writers

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - A TV cameraman is getting an inside view of life at Guantanamo Bay prison - only he is unable to get out and tell the story.

Sami al-Hajj, of the Al-Jazeera TV network, was stopped at the Afghanistan border by Pakistani authorities in December 2001, turned over to U.S. forces and hauled in chains six months later to Guantanamo, where about 390 men are held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

Al-Hajj, a 38-year-old native of Sudan, has been held in this U.S. military prison ever since.

He is believed to be the only journalist from a major international news organization held at Guantanamo.

Colleagues from al-Hajj's Qatar-based network and the Sudanese government want to know why he is being held, but the U.S. government is saying little. The military did not even publicly acknowledge holding al-Hajj until last April, when it released a list of Guantanamo detainees in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Associated Press.

But military documents sketch at least a partial outline of al-Hajj's experiences at Guantanamo and the U.S. grounds for holding him - that he transported money between 1996 and 2000 for a defunct charity that allegedly provided money to militant groups, and that he met a ``senior al-Qaida lieutenant.''

When he appeared before a military review panel at this remote U.S. military base in August 2005, al-Hajj, citing the advice of his attorney, declined to respond to questions. But he denied any connection to terrorism.

``With all due respect, a mistake has been made because I have never been a member of any terrorist group,'' he said, according to a transcript released the following year. ``I can say without hesitation that I am not a threat to the United States.''

During the hearing, aimed at determining whether al-Hajj posed a threat to the United States or possessed intelligence value, al-Hajj wore a white jumpsuit reserved for the ``most compliant'' detainees. An officer told the tribunal that al-Hajj was leading Islamic prayer sessions and teaching other prisoners English.

His colleagues at Al-Jazeera claim his detention is American harassment of an Arabic TV network whose coverage has long angered U.S. officials. Near the entrance to the network's Khartoum bureau a banner saying ``Free Sami al-Hajj'' hangs alongside his photo.

``He's our colleague, so we're very worried,'' Nassef Salah Eldin, an Al-Jazeera producer in the Sudanese capital. ``We feel it could happen to any of us.''

Lamis Andoni, a Middle East analyst for the network who helped organize a campaign for al-Hajj's release, noted the network's sour relationship with the American government. In April 2003, an Al-Jazeera journalist was killed when the network's Baghdad bureau was struck during a U.S. bombing campaign. In November 2001, a U.S. missile destroyed Al-Jazeera's office in Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S. claims both attacks were mistakes.

``When you are targeted once, it could be a mistake,'' Andoni said in an interview from Amman, Jordan. ``But when you are bombed twice, it's something else.''

In an interview in Khartoum, Sudanese Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi said the holding of the cameraman without charge ``is repugnant to all the conventions and principles of international law.''

Washington has given Sudan no information about al-Hajj, al-Mardi said. U.S. relations with Sudan are strained over the Darfur conflict.

Al-Hajj has been interrogated at the Guantanamo Bay prison complex, which sits on an arid corner of southeast Cuba overlooking the Caribbean.

``I consider the information that we obtained from him to be useful,'' Paul Rester, director of the Joint Intelligence Group at the prison, said in an interview at Guantanamo Bay. Rester refused to elaborate or even to comment on the allegations aired at the 2005 hearing.

International human rights and press freedom groups condemn al-Hajj's imprisonment. Reporters Without Borders cited his case when it dropped the United States nine places to 53rd in its 2006 Worldwide Press Freedom Index. The group also noted the case of AP photographer Bilal Hussein, detained by U.S. forces on April 12 in Ramadi, Iraq, and held without charge ever since.

Al-Hajj himself has protested by joining the hunger strike at Guantanamo, according to letters released by his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith.

``If justice is to be achieved, due sacrifice must be made,'' al-Hajj wrote.

It was not known whether al-Hajj was among the 11 prisoners that the military said were on hunger strike as of Thursday.

The U.S. military says 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. The U.S. says he also traveled 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 authorities say funded militant groups.

It was also during this period that he allegedly ``met'' Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden who was arrested in Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States.

Stafford Smith said al-Hajj did not routinely transport money but that he and his wife once carried $220,000 from Qatar to Azerbaijan for his boss at the beverage company - and that he even declared the cash to customs.

``Sami was only doing what he was told by his boss,'' Stafford Smith said.

He said al-Hajj, while working for the beverage company, met Salim only once, when he was sent to pick him up at the airport in Qatar in 1998. During the drive, the two discussed schools and housing, the attorney said.

Al-Hajj, who has a wife and son in Qatar, will mark his fifth anniversary in Guantanamo in June. The military informed him in December that it had reviewed his case and determined he was not among the more than 80 detainees at Guantanamo Bay deemed eligible for release or transfer.

``You will continue to be kept at Guantanamo Bay for at least one more year,'' the military told al-Hajj in the formal notice.

Guantánamo inmate says US told him to spy on al-Jazeera

http://www.guardian.co.uk/internatio...ticle_continue

Vikram Dodd
Monday September 26, 2005
The Guardian

The US military told an al-Jazeera cameraman being held at Guantánamo Bay that he would be released as long as he agreed to spy on journalists at the Arabic news channel, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
The journalist has been in the prison without charge for three-and-a-half years after being accused by the US of being a terrorist, allegations he denies. He claims that he has been interrogated more than 100 times but not asked about alleged terrorist offences. Instead, Sami Muhyideen al-Hajj says US military personnel have alleged during interrogation that al-Jazeera has been infiltrated by al-Qaida and that one of its presenters is linked to Islamists.

[Teagan]

I think I know where you are going with this but Alan Johnston is British while Sami al-Hajj is Sudanese ... perhaps the Sudanese have heard of Sami al-Hajj and not Alan Johnston?

[Calvin]

Originally Posted by Teagan

I think I know where you are going with this but Alan Johnston is British while Sami al-Hajj is Sudanese ... perhaps the Sudanese have heard of Sami al-Hajj and not Alan Johnston?

I was just ticked heard of Alan Johnston. Dont have a clue what the thread is getting at though.

[Aladdin]

I imagine the thread is getting at the following:

White, westerner = unnaceptable injustice, must be freed immediately

Darkie/towelhead = probably a terrorist anyway, and who gives a fuck


And I cannot but agree with that sentiment (of the thread that is, not of the hypocrisy highlighted above).

The real shame is not with the incumbent US government, which by now has been well established a neo-fascist mass torturer and jailer, but with the UN, Western nations in general and the media, which continue to lack the backbone to to stand up to any of the atrocities commited by our Masters in Washington while denouncing the same atrocities when commited by anybody else.

[carlito]

Clearly, the two cases are not exactly the same, but they are comparable.

Both are journalists and work for major broadcasters. Both were working in extremely dangerous areas. One has been captured and held for several months, with very little information given by his captors; there has been international broadcasts and appeals for his release, all around the world and on many compteting networks, and has even had a direct appeal from the UN secretary general for his release (Alan Johnston). The other has was captured by the world's most powerful state, with very little information given by his captors; there has been almost no press coverage on his captor and few calls for his release, despite evidence that his captors demanded that he spy upon his own broadcaster (Sami al-Hajj).

Out of interest, I watched a couple of very good documentaries from Channel 4 over the last few days. The first I think is a must see:

Dispatches: "The Killing Zone:"
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...6&q=dispatches
(Concerning the dangers facing journalists, activists, etc reporting from Palestine, warning, some scenes are quite disturbing and upsetting)

Jon Snow/Channel 4: "Iraq: The Hidden Story:"
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...5752103&q=iraq
(Concerning the difficulty for journalists in reporting on Iraq, at least reporting on anything going on outside the media-managed "Green Zone")

[carlito]

Originally Posted by Aladdin

I imagine the thread is getting at the following:

White, westerner = unnaceptable injustice, must be freed immediately

Darkie/towelhead = probably a terrorist anyway, and who gives a fuck

Broadly, yes. However, I also meant to highlight two other things:
1) Journalists are being used as leverage in wider power struggles; perhaps even more directly and more unethically than in previous years.
2) The US is now clearly using Guantanamo Bay as a method of balckmail to force people who have never directly or indirectly been involved in terrorism/radicalism into becoming spies/informants/agents provocateurs for the US intelligence services. There is another relatively high-profile case at the moment involving two brothers, British businessmen, who were abducted and threatened with indefinate incarceration unless they became US informants/spies. One has now been released, the other is still held at "camp X-Ray."

[Flashman's Ghost]

I see your point - there does seem to be a priority on stories in the UK media

1) British journo kidnapped top story

2) US imprisons Sudanese journo alleged to have links to Al-Q - not so much a story in most places, but still mentioned.

3) Cuba imprisons yet another journo
http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/79056.html
Hardly a squeak ( the only British source I could find was the bottom 3 paras of this story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6586225.stm)

That said I don't think there's a major conspiracy. A lot of the publicity in Alan Johnston's case has been generated by the BBC - who are probably the biggest media provider in this country and who are understandly concerned about their employee.

Sami al-Hajj isn't the only person in Gitmo and much of the news tends to be about it in general. It is also known exactly where he is and he's relatively safe (the US hasn't started topping prisoners there yet - at least on purpose).

With the third story, well a lot of people like to give Cuba an easy ride. After all it says some rude things about the US and what's a few beatings of journos amongst friends....

[Aladdin]

Whereas the Cuban case deserves as much condemnation as the others I don't think they get an easier ride than many other nations.

Google "jailed journalist" and sadly you will read countless cases from across the world- most of which barely make it to print, let alone the front pages.

The reason why the Sami al-Hajj case should perhaps receive preferential attention over the many other cases around the world is because it was commited by by the leader of the free world and self-proclaimed champion of human rights and freedom (LOL x 94,000,000). Cuba on the other hand is an oppresive regime and an unpleasant dictatorship. That doesn't make its actions any more acceptable, but rightly or wrongly it does make them a little less newsworthy, if only because it does not bear the unsurpassed levels of hypocrisy and double standards shown by its neighbour to the north.

[Flashman's Ghost]

Originally Posted by Aladdin

Whereas the Cuban case deserves as much condemnation as the others I don't think they get an easier ride than many other nations.

Google "jailed journalist" and sadly you will read countless cases from across the world- most of which barely make it to print, let alone the front pages.

The reason why the Sami al-Hajj case should perhaps receive preferential attention over the many other cases around the world is because it was commited by by the leader of the free world and self-proclaimed champion of human rights and freedom (LOL x 94,000,000). Cuba on the other hand is an oppresive regime and an unpleasant dictatorship. That doesn't make its actions any more acceptable, but rightly or wrongly it does make them a little less newsworthy, if only because it does not bear the unsurpassed levels of hypocrisy and double standards shown by its neighbour to the north.

But why should he recieve any more attention than anyone else in Gitmo?

If Gitmo is wrong why should the fact he's a journo count more?

[Aladdin]

Perhaps because there is an added angle to journalists being imprisoned. Not only they are innocent like presumably most other inmates being held at Gitmo, or Cuban or Saudi prisons, but their imprisoment may have taken place to prevent them from reporting unfavourable news about a government and to warn other journalists not to overstep the line.

In the case of Alan Johnston you could say he's getting considerably more airtime than non-journalists who have been captured in Gaza or elsewhere. I susppose it just boils down to journalists looking after their own.

[katchika]

I've heard of them both although admittedly I didn't know the second guy's name. I had heard what had happened though.

It's pretty obvious that a British Broadcasting Corporation reporter being captured/kidnapped is going to be bigger news in BRITAIN than a Sudanese guy being captured in Cuba.

I've seen a lot of bad mouthing of journalists on these boards but if it wasn't for reporters like Alan Johnson (and presumably Sami al-Hajj although I haven't seen his stuff), the public wouldn't know what was going on in places like Palestine/Iraq etc. Apart from whatever the government and army chose to put out.

[Jarvey Of Suburbia]

I thought they were footballers

[Calvin]

Originally Posted by Jarvey Of Suburbia

I thought they were footballers

[Man Of Kent]

Originally Posted by Flashman's Ghost

If Gitmo is wrong why should the fact he's a journo count more?

I would argue that perhaps that has something to do with freedom of the press to report. Unless they are actively engaged in espoinage/armed conflict, natch.