Two of the Associated Press's very top stories this morning were about so-called "enemy combatants" imprisoned indefinitely without a trial. They were hard hitting articles.
One story was about an AP photographer in Iraq who has been imprisoned for five months now without charges filed against him and with no public hearing.
The article says:
Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide - 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.
In Hussein's case, the military has not provided any concrete evidence to back up the vague allegations they have raised about him, Curley and other AP executives said.
The AP waited until now to come out with the story because they thought they could resolve the problem without making it public. But...
The AP has worked quietly until now, believing that would be the best approach. But with the U.S. military giving no indication it would change its stance, the news cooperative has decided to make public Hussein's imprisonment, hoping the spotlight will bring attention to his case and that of thousands of others now held in Iraq.
I don't know how to link to web pages, so I'll just copy and paste the web address:
http://hosted.ap.org/...
The second article is not about any specific detainee, but talks about the program more generally. Here's how it starts off:
In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.
Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.
http://hosted.ap.org/...
It's so great to see a mainstream news org finally take the Bush admin. to task right at the very top of their front page. These articles deserve a wide audience.
**UPDATE** In the comments section, Musing Graze and April Follies point out that you can go to Yahoo and rate these articles "up" to get them more exposure. Yahoo, of course, is one of the most visited websites in the world. Take a second to rate these articles up using the links below:
1st article
2nd article