Sami al-Haj

Sami Al Haj in Guantanamo

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Published May 15, 2008, in Guantanamo, Journalist, Lies of the U.S. Administration, Released, Sami al-Haj

By Dr. Marwan Asmar
Online Journal Contributing Writer

It was freedom at last! The release of Sami Al Haj after six-and-a-half years, languishing in prison on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, is a surreal reality going to the heart of international political intrigue, media manipulation and human rights violations.

Despite what is regarded as a botched up theatrical play by the US government, Sami Al Haj, a Sudanese cameraman who worked for world-famous Al Jazeera, was viewed as an ?enemy combatant? who in the end was released without any charges, despite the fact he had to endure 130 sessions of interrogations in which he claimed the authorities offered to set him free if he would spy on his own employer Al Jazeera, and the journalists working there as he says 35 of these sessions were solely related to his work at the satellite station that has an audience of 40 million.

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Freed Al-Jazeera cameraman says conditions at Guantanamo bad, getting worse

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Published May 2, 2008, in "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Detainee, Detainee Abuse, Hunger Strike, Released, Sami al-Haj, Torture, URGENT Health Issue, USA

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj returned home to Sudan on Friday, a day after being released from six years of custody at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp where described conditions as “bad and getting worse.”

Al-Haj, 38, whose detention drew worldwide condemnation, was released from the U.S. military prison along with two other Sudanese. All three arrived at the airport in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum aboard U.S. military plane.

The cameraman, who had been on a hunger strike for the last 16 months to protest conditions at the prison, grimaced as he was carried off the plane by U.S. military personnel.

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“Torture is terrorism”, ex-Guantanamo man tells U.S.

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Published May 2, 2008, in "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Detainee, Detainee Abuse, Hunger Strike, Journalist, Released, Sami al-Haj, Torture, URGENT Health Issue, USA, war crimes

By Opheera McDoom

sami-now

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Al Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj returned home to Sudan on Friday after more than six years in the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison, urging Washington to respect human rights and branding torture as terrorism.

Haj said he and the other Guantanamo detainees had been subjected to all kinds of torture, but the worst had been when his jailers insulted Islam or desecrated the Koran in front of prisoners.

“Security and human rights are inseparable issues — you cannot have one without the other,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“Human rights are not only for times of peace — you need to hold onto them always even during difficult times and times of war,” he added.

“My last message to the U.S. administration is that torture will not stop terrorism — torture is terrorism.”

Haj looked frail but visibly stronger than 12 hours earlier, when he arrived in chains aboard a U.S. military plane from the U.S. prison in Cuba, where he spent the last 16 months on hunger strike in protest at his illegal detention.

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