Prisoner 345

You may not know him, not many do. But you should. He is a journalist and a prisoner at Gitmo.

Since December 15th, 2001 after being arrested at a Pakistani town on the border with Afghanistan, Sami al Haj has been a prisoner of the United States. He was first jailed in Pakistan and then was transferred to the infamous Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan. Sami al Haj states that there he was tortured, had dogs attack him, was held in a freezing cage and was given little food.

He was then sent to Kandahar, where Sami al Haj alleges that he was subjected to sexual abuse by US soldiers, threatened with rape, forced into stress positions, forced to kneel for long periods on concrete floors, beaten regularly, had all the hairs on his beard pulled out one by one and was not allowed to wash for over a hundred days.

On June 13th, 2002 al Haj was transferred to an 8’ x 7’ cell at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where he was designated an enemy combatant and imprisoned without charges.What’s troubling is that Sami al Haj, prisoner 345, was arrested while traveling with a legitimate visa to work in Afghanistan as a cameraman. What’s even more troubling is that the mainstream media has largely ignored his compelling story.

Every indication is that Sami al Haj was just doing his job for Al Jezeera when he was arrested. He was assigned to work in Afghanistan soon after the military operations started there and was shooting for one of it’s correspondents while working out of a news bureau in Kandahar which was organized and run by CNN.

Many believe that al Haj is being detained as part of a widely reported US witch hunt targeting Al Jezeera. This seems to be backed up by accounts which stated that his interrogators were heavily focused on the news organization and not on al Haj or what he did. They seemed to be gathering intelligence on Al Jezeera, rather than investgating any wrongdoing on Sami al Haj's part.

Stafford Smith, al Haj's attorney said that at one point, U.S. military interrogators allegedly told al-Haj that he would be released if he agreed to inform U.S. intelligence authorities about the satellite news network's activities. He refused.

Interestingly, one of the Downing Street memos detailed a meeting between Prime Minister Blair and President Bush, at when Bush proposed to bomb Jazeera. Blair talked Bush out of it, but there were shootings directed and Al Jazeera personnel were killed.

I wonder if anyone is catching on yet. The playbook is very simple. If you are a Muslim male or in a Muslim organization, even a legitimate news network anywhere in the world, doing anything at all, at any time, the country that hails itself as the champion of truth and justice can just snatch you off the street. They can torture you, imprison you without being charged, with no right to legal representation and with no notification to anyone. Forever if they want.

Every human being is unique and should be valued. Especially the innocent who are persecuted and have their freedom taken from them unjustly. Especially journalists in dangerous places who are just doing their job. Don’t forget him. Sami al Haj, ISN 345 Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay P.O. Box 166, Washington, DC 20355