US releases Al Jazeera cameraman from Guantanamo

An Al Jazeera cameraman detained by US forces in Afghanistan was released on May 1 after spending over six years imprisoned without charge at Guantánamo Bay. Sami al-Haj, 39, was arrested on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Dec. 15, 2001, while on assignment to cover the war against the Taliban. Although he had a valid visa to work in Afghanistan, US intelligence alleged that he was an al-Qaida operative, and he was transferred to Guantánamo in June 2002. His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said: "I'm very glad Sami has finally been released, but the question is why he wasn't freed many years ago." The US military alleged that Haj had secretly interviewed Osama bin Laden, smuggled guns for al-Qaida and worked as a financial courier for Chechen rebels. But the evidence against him was never revealed, and he was never charged. Prior to his release, Haj had been on hunger strike since January 2007, and was forced to undergo "assisted feeding" via a tube through his nose. According to Stafford Smith, he was suicidal and had throat cancer, but camp authorities withheld medical treatment. Robert Ménard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, said: "Sami al-Haj should never have been held so long. US authorities never proved that he had been involved in any criminal activity." Haj's case was one of a number involving journalists captured by US forces while reporting from war zones. Two weeks ago US forces in Iraq released Bilal Hussein, a photographer from the Associated Press news agency, who was detained in Ramadi in April 2006. Commentators in the Middle East viewed Haj's imprisonment as a proxy punishment for Al Jazeera, whose broadcasts have angered US officials. Hajj has hit out at his treatment. He said that "rats are treated with more humanity," than the inmates, whose "human dignity was violated.... 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 animals." Hajj complains that "for more than seven years, [inmates] did not get a chance to be brought before a civil court to defend their just case." "Security and human rights are inseparable issues -- you cannot have one without the other," he told Reuters in an interview. "Human rights are not only for times of peace -- you need to hold onto them always even during difficult times and times of war," he added. "My last message to the US administration is that torture will not stop terrorism -- torture is terrorism." Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, visited Hajj in the hospital. A senior US defense official in Washington speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that Hajj was "not being released [but] being transferred to the Sudanese government." But Sudan's justice minister told Al Jazeera that Hajj was a free man and would not be arrested or face any charges. Two other Sudanese inmates at Guantanamo, Amir Yacoub al-Amir and Walid Ali, were freed along with al-Hajj. The two said they were blindfolded, handcuffed and chained to their seats during the flight home.