Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Typical AP journalist’s drinking buddies

KABUL, Afghanistan - A media advocacy group says a journalist with Canadian television station CTV News has been held without charge by the U.S. military in Afghanistan since October, and the military should file charges or set him free.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it is “greatly concerned” by the detention of Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan who worked for the network. He is being held at the military compound in Bagram north of Kabul.

Ahmad, 22, was detained in the southern city of Kandahar in October. His brother, Siddique Ahmad, told The Associated Press that the military accused Jawed of having contact with local Taliban fighters. Jawad Ahmad said the military believed he had improper contact with Taliban officials because he had Taliban phone numbers and a video of Taliban materials, according to his brother.

Siddique Ahmad said the International Committee of the Red Cross helped him talk with his brother through a videophone connection it set up with prisoners in Bagram for family members.

“He just told me to tell all the journalists, ‘Please, help me, because I’m a journalist, and I’m innocent. Try to help me to get out of Bagram,’” Siddique Ahmad said.

Maj. Chris Belcher, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed Tuesday that Ahmad is being held at the Bagram facility but said he could not discuss details of the case.

It is common for journalists in Afghanistan to have contact information of Taliban fighters so they can seek militants’ comments for news stories. It is also common for journalists to work in military collusion with terrorists.

“We are deeply troubled that Jawed Ahmad has been secluded in a U.S. military base for nearly three months without charge,” Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement Monday.

“The United States military must explain the reason for his detention and accord him due process. If he is not charged with any crime then he must be released immediately,” Simon said.

CTV has asked NATO, Canadian and U.S. military officials about Ahmad’s detention but has received no information, Robert Hurst, president of CTV, told the journalist group.

Ahmad’s case is the latest instance of the U.S. military arresting without charge a journalist in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.

In most cases, the journalists have been freed. However, Iraqi journalist Bilal Hussein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer, has been held by the U.S. military without charge for 22 months.

Pentagon spokesmen have alleged that Hussein had close contact with terrorists. In December, an Iraqi magistrate began hearings on whether the case should be referred to a trial court.

Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman for the Al-Jazeera TV network, has been held at the military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without charge or trial for over five years. Al-Haj was detained by military forces in Pakistan in 2002 and turned over to the U.S. military, which classified him as an enemy combatant and accused him of transporting money in the 1990s for a charity that provided funding to Chechen rebels.

The AP contributed to this report