AP president: US arrests journalist in Iraq to 'control' information

Associated Press president Tom Curley says his news organization does not buy the government's argument that one of its photographers arrested in Iraq was working on behalf of the enemy, and he alleged the US is rounding up journalists in an attempt to control information.

"To say the least, we see things very differently," Curley commented dryly, regarding photographer Bilal Hussein, who was arrested two years ago and remains in military custody.

Noting that at least a dozen other Iraqi photographers have been detained or arrested, Curley stated, "It's impossible not to conclude that the words and pictures these journalists produced were considered unhelpful to the war effort and that their arrests would have served a broader strategy of information control."

Curley also called on journalists to demand that all the presidential candidates make a commitment to reversing a directive issued by Attorney General John Ashcroft shortly after September 11 that radically restricted the scope of the Freedom of Information Act.

Ashcroft's memo stated, "When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records."

Even worse, the U.S. has targeted journalists and photographers for death throughout this war of empire. This has been the most deadly war on record for those seeking to get information to 'the people'.

For those who believe this hasn't had a chilling effect on what news is reported, it time for them to retrieve their heads from a rectal position. Even the bravest of reporters see no up side to dying without good cause. Dying does not get the truth out. Those who eventually get the truth out must play a dangerous role in a war zone and can only report truth after the fact, never again being able to enter the hot zone. For those co-opted for ideological reasons there is a false of security as they work as if for Goebbels.

I worry about these people. Their true heroism is in standing against the war.

http://ivaw.org/

Check out the 'Winter Soldiers'. Chilling.

Thanks for posting this story. This would be a good thing to post on big city newspaper sites, because AP is considered kind of generic.

Too many people are finding it so easy to not even think about the war.

Too many people are never going to see a single article about how the COrporate Media may as well be government tv at this point.

Only you can spread truth -fire (across internet barriers)