CBS Cameraman Acquitted In Iraq

Panel Rules There Was A Lack Of Evidence A Year After Arrest

(CBS/AP) 
"They shot me in the hip," he said of the American troops. "I tried to stand up, but I couldn't."

After five minutes, troops arrived and took him to the hospital.

"All the time they were cursing me, and calling me a terrorist," he said. "I kept saying, 'I'm not a terrorist. I'm a correspondent."'

The U.S. military alleged that Hussein was standing near a man waving a gun and inciting the crowd after the bombing — a man that troops killed at the site. Hussein denied that he was with anyone who had a gun.

Mohammed Younis Hussein, who flashed smiles with his younger brother after the verdict was issued, said he was not happy with American troops and their presence in Iraq.

"It was as if the Americans were trying to frame him, to cover up the truth, the fact that they shot a CBS News cameraman, a journalist who was doing his job," said the 30-year-old. "They're making a lot of mistakes. It would be better for them to leave."

The elder brother also said Hussein was mistreated at Abu Ghraib, being placed in solitary confinement, deprived of sleep with interrogations after 2 a.m., and at times forced to face the wall in his cell.

It was difficult for the family to visit Hussein, he said, because the road from Mosul to Baghdad is so dangerous. His cell phone started ringing off the hook after the ruling as he relayed the news to Hussein's parents and eight other siblings.

He said the family planned to take Hussein out of the country for awhile to relax and "so he won't have to see a single American soldier in the street."

Reporters Without Borders in Paris said Hussein was the fourth journalist released by the U.S. military in Iraq this year and no other journalists are known to be held by American forces there at this time.

Horton said journalists have increasingly become targets in Iraq.

As the lawyer spoke to reporters in a parking lot from the courthouse, Iraqi security forces began firing shots in the air, demanding cameramen stop filming. Within seconds they were pointing guns at the reporters, forcing everyone to retreat.

"This shows the reckless indifference to the safety of journalists I've been talking about," Horton said later, adding that courthouse officials had told him interviews could be conducted in the parking lot.

Cameramen were temporarily detained as security forces tried, unsuccessfully, to confiscate their tapes.