Iraqi Reuters Journalist Released From Abu Ghraib
Yesterday, Reuters reports, an "Iraqi journalist working for Reuters was released from U.S. military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad…after 12 days in detention." Ali al-Mashhadani had also been detained for five months in 2005. This time around, he was held without charges and interrogated "intensively" because officials considered him a security threat in connection with his work in Sunni Anbar. He was then "released under a fast-track procedure for reviewing the detention of journalists" – the procedure instituted after his initial detention, as well as Hussein's.
In a war like Iraq, it's not always obvious who is an enemy and who is a friend. It's understandable that the military would be suspicious of Iraqi journalists who interact with suspected insurgents. But it's also important that the military resist the impulse to round up suspects and detain them for long periods of time without evidence, simply out of an overabundance of caution. Iraqi journalists are instrumental to efforts to get the full picture from Iraq; they are also human beings who don't deserve to be falsely imprisoned. The relatively short detention of Mashhadani is an encouraging sign.