US Rep. Keith Ellison Says Al-Jazeera Journalist Sami Al-Haj, Jailed at Guantanamo Bay Should Be Tried or Released

U.S. Lawmaker Says Journalist Jailed at Guantanamo Bay Should Be Tried or Released

By BEN FOX Associated Press Writer

Nov 1, 4:09 PM EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) --

A campaign to free a journalist imprisoned at Guantanamo gained support Thursday from the first Muslim member of Congress, who urged authorities to prosecute or release him after more than five years without charges.

Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman for Al-Jazeera, was captured in 2002 as he tried to enter Afghanistan to cover the war. His lawyer says he denies any connection to terrorism and has been on a hunger strike since January to protest his indefinite confinement.

In a rare show of public support from a U.S. official, Rep. Keith Ellison, a first-term Democrat from Minnesota, called for a hearing to determine whether the military has legitimate reason to hold al-Haj with about 330 other men at the prison on a Navy base in Cuba.

"If he's a bad actor, prove it. If not, let him out," the congressman told The Associated Press.

Ellison said he believes all Guantanamo prisoners should be allowed to challenge their confinement in the courts. But he said he is particularly concerned about the detention of a journalist who, as far as he can tell, was "detained for taking pictures." He made the public statement at the request of Al-Jazeera.

Representatives of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera have been meeting with political and business leaders and media groups in the United States in recent weeks to draw publicity to al-Haj's detention while simultaneously trying to jump-start U.S. distribution of Al-Jazeera's English language channel.

"We just want to raise awareness and give support for someone we feel is being totally mistreated," said Satnam Matharu, the network's head of international media relations.

At least two other members of Congress have expressed concern about the cameraman but were not yet ready to make a public statement, Matharu said.

As part of its campaign, the network plans a series of new video spots for its Arabic and English language channels and will revamp an Internet site devoted to the campaign to free al-Haj.

"We're standing behind him and we vouch for his innocence," he said.

At a military hearing that determined al-Haj, 38, was an "enemy combatant," U.S. authorities accused him of transporting money in the 1990s for a charity that provided funding to Chechen rebels, and of having other links to Islamic militants. But the military has never disclosed in detail why he was captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and turned over to the U.S.

The U.S. military says the Guantanamo detainees are held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Al-Haj is believed to be the only journalist from a major news organization imprisoned at the base.

"Mr. al-Haj's detention is in no way based on his status as a reporter or the content of his reporting," Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman said. "There is a significant amount of information, both classified and unclassified, which supports detention of enemy combatants by U.S. forces."

Gordon noted that al-Haj's detention is reviewed at an annual military hearing, and that he can challenge his "enemy combatant" status in the courts. However, Congress and President Bush have limited federal court challenges to a review of military procedures, and stripped Guantanamo detainees of the broader right to challenge their confinement through habeas corpus petitions. The Supreme Court is reviewing that action in its current term.

Ellison, who supports restoring habeas rights to detainees, said he has conducted research into the case and has not seen anything solid linking al-Haj to any crimes. The congressman said he may seek a meeting with military officials or use his seat on the Judiciary Committee to press for more information.

"The evidence that I have found is that this guy is a cameraman who is being detained for taking pictures and that is a concern to me," he said.

The freshman congressman has been a vocal critic of the Iraq war and in June added his name to an effort to remove Vice President Dick Cheney from office through impeachment.

Ellison said his religion is irrelevant to his concerns about al-Haj, though he predicts it will be used to "attack" his support.

Al-Haj's lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, was able to meet with the cameraman in early October, and said he appeared weak and at times incoherent from his long-running hunger strike and the daily force-feeding that keeps him alive. While the military has said al-Haj is physically fine, Stafford Smith said "he really is mentally and physically suffering."

The journalist told his lawyer he had spoken to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which appeared to be investigating the U.S. military's force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike.

A Red Cross spokesman in Washington said the agency was not conducting a formal investigation but only making a routine inspection. A Guantanamo spokesman said the military's conversations with the Red Cross are confidential and he could not comment. There are currently 13 men on hunger strike, including two or more than two years.

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